Julian Rubinstein

Julian Rubinstein is an award-winning journalist, author, producer and adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He’s also racked salmon at an Alaskan fish cannery; survived a yearlong graveyard shift as an agate clerk on the Washington Post sports desk; wrote and performed music with the Cologne Theater in Germany; spent a day in a Lebanese Army holding cell for filming in a restricted area; been thrown out of a gallery by John McEnroe while reporting a story about him; and generally attempted to connect people by finding innovative ways to chronicle the adventures, misadventures and identity politics of underdogs and under-represented communities, youth and societies in transition.

His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Details, Salon, BlackBook, Travel + Leisure, and others, and in anthologies such as Best American Essays, Best American Crime Writing and Best American Sports Writing. His non-fiction book, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber  [Little, Brown] tells the story of the Transylvanian zamboni driver/pelt smuggler/bank robber and modern day folk hero Attila Ambrus. It is a book about capitalism, national identity and the tumultuous post-communist era in Eastern Europe. Called “An instant classic,” by Canada’s Globe and Mail, the book won Borders 2004 “Original Voices” Non-fiction Book of the Year award, and was a finalist for the 2005 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime, a finalist for the 2005 Anthony Award for Best Non-fiction book, and a New York Times “Editors Choice.” Julian co-produced, directed and wrote and performed the music for a radio cabaret style audio recording of the book, starring Demetri Martin, Eric Bogosian, Gary Shteyngart, Arthur Phillips, Jonathan Ames, Jonathan Spottiswoode and others. The production was named a finalist for the 2007 Audie Award for Best Audio Book.

The book made several Best Books of 2004 lists, including those of Canada’s Globe and Mail, the Denver Post, Powell’s Bookstore and the Harvard University Bookstore, and made the Media Commons Top 50 Books of the decade. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber was published in the UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary, where it was a #1 national bestseller. Hungary’s leading literary magazine, Elet es Irodalom, called it “arguably the best piece of serious literature ever written tackling the Hungarian experience in the 1990s….One of Julian Rubinstein’s best virtues is a sincere interest in, and sympathy toward, csorikaim, the little people, prone to fail, the losers.” Johnny Depp and Warner Bros. purchased the film rights.

Julian began his career as an agate clerk then sports reporter and writer, first for The Washington Post and then Sports Illustrated. He went on to report from more than a dozen countries, taking on a wide variety of subjects including John McEnroe, the mysterious deaths of the Guarani Indians of Brazil, the bloody Hells Angels turf war in Quebec, the Israeli ecstasy kingpin Jacob “Cookie” Orgad, the plight of the Palestinians at Bourj al Barajnei in Beirut. He has worked as a story consultant on fiction and non-fiction books and films, and produced film, rotoscope and digital projects independently and for PBS News Hour.

Julian is a member of the PEN American Center, and a recipient of a Lannan Foundation grant as well as a grant from the Center for Investigative Journalism’s Dick Goldensohn Fund. He has received fellowships and artist residencies from the Corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Ledig International Writers House, the Passa Porta International House of Literature, the Ucross Foundation, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, the Santa Fe Art Institute, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. His work has been published in more than a dozen countries and translated in eight languages. He has spoken at festivals, universities, companies, and organizations around the world. He is an adjunct projessor of journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, from which he received his master’s degree. Born in the Bronx and raised in Denver, he lives in Brooklyn.