Jill Eisenstadt
Jill Eisenstadt (born June 15, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, teacher and freelance journalist from Queens, New York. She studied at Bennington College, graduating in 1985, and was part of the so‑called Literary Brat Pack with writers like Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney, Donna Tartt and Tama Janowitz. Her writing often has a spare, minimalist style influenced by Raymond Carver and Joan Didion.
Her first novel, From Rockaway (1987, Knopf), was submitted as her MFA thesis at Columbia University. It’s a coming‑of‑age story about four teens from Rockaway Beach. The main character, Alex, wins a scholarship to Camden College (a stand‑in for Bennington) while her friends stay behind, working odd jobs and spending summers lifeguarding. The four reconnect at a beach party and confront their diverging lives. Publishers Weekly praised it as a finely tuned debut. From Rockaway was translated into six languages, optioned for film by Sydney Pollack, and reissued in 2017 by Little, Brown.
Her second novel, Kiss Out (1991), followed, and Swell (2017) is set in Rockaway Beach with some characters from From Rockaway, though not a direct sequel.
Eisenstadt has written many short stories, essays, articles and reviews for The New York Times, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Elle, The Boston Review, New York Magazine, BKYLN, BOMB, and contributed to anthologies such as ALTARED: Essays About Modern Weddings (2007), Queens Noir (2007) and The Best Sex Writing 2008.
She has collaborated with her writer/director sister Debra on the screenplay for the indie film The Limbo Room (2006) and produced the film Before the Sun Explodes. She has written about the 1989 steam‑pipe explosion in New York that damaged her apartment and ruined many of her possessions, including manuscripts, by exposing them to asbestos.
Eisenstadt is married to fellow novelist Michael Drinkard, and they have three daughters: Jane, Lena and Colette Drinkard.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:38 (CET).