American novelist and writer of magazine articles, a contemporary hip and trendy New York underground figure whose works show the alchemy of a fantastic, post-modern surrealism. Some of her noted works are : “Slaves of New York.,” 1986, and “A Cannibal in Manhattan,” 1987. She is a contributor of articles published in New Yorker Magazine, Rolling Stone and Mademoiselle, among others.
Janowitz is the daughter of Julian Frederick (a psychiatrist) and Phyllis (a poet and professor (Winer) Janowitz, who divorced. Tama earned a BA in Barnard College, 1977, an MA at Hollins College, 1979, and did post grad studies at Yale University School of Drama, 1980-81; and received an MFA from Columbia University, 1985.
She became a model with Vidal Sassoon hair salons in London and New York 1975-’78 before working as an Assistant art director and freelance journalist. Since the publication of her first novel, “American Dad,” at age 23, author Tama Janowitz has captured media headlines, as much for her flamboyant personality and notoriety as friend to late Andy Warhol as for her postmodernist fiction. A witty and sensitive observer of New York City’s inner life, she has sometimes been taken to task for her new wave kitsch sensibilities. Her work includes “The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group,” 1992 and “A Certain Age: A Novel,” July 1999.
In 1989, she appeared in the film, “Slaves of New York” with the screenplay based on her novel. She remarked in an interview, “The story isn’t as much mine as eighty of my girlfriends.” The best-selling novel earned her an
international cult following and a reputation of being a wry, painfully acute observer of urban human absurdities which include the love-hate relationship between the genders.
Janowitz also became fodder for the gossip columns, learning first-hand what it means to go from relative obscurity to celebrity status. She became more than a young writer with a success on her hands–she became an icon of New York’s kinetic night life, running in the same circles as her good friend Andy Warhol.
A Manhattan resident with her dog, Janowitz married Time Hunt in 1992.
Link to Wikipedia biography