Sam Stephenson is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow. He was also a judge for PEN America's 2019 literary prize in biography. He has studied the life and work of photographer W. Eugene Smith since January 1997, following his footsteps in twenty-six states and Japan and the Pacific, conducting more than five hundred oral history interviews. Gene Smith's Sink (published August 2017 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is the culmination of twenty years of work, often looking around the subject, distilled to spare essentials.
Stephenson's new manuscript has a working title of Grace Note Routes. It's a further exploration of his writing and documentary style of looking rigorously off-center of a subject, called "wide-angle view" in the subtitle of Gene Smith's Sink, and called "lyric research" by poet Ross Gay. Similar to Smith's late cutting of Sink, Stephenson cut the new manuscript by 40% in the summer of 2019 to reach its finished form.
On June 30, 2019, Indiana Public Media/WFIU broadcast a one-hour interview with Stephenson that is an excellent overview of his work over the past twenty years, including discussions of new topics such as parenting and his new project on the band Jane's Addiction 1986-1991.
A previous oral history interview with Stephenson was made public on the Outspoken Podcast in January 2018 by Cal. St. Fullerton's Center for Oral and Public History. This interview contains unique discussion of his childhood and youth in coastal Washington, N.C. and his new manuscript.
Stephenson's first Smith book, Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project was published by W.W. Norton in 2001. In 2009, Alfred A. Knopf published his book, The Jazz Loft Project: The Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue.
The Jazz Loft Project won a 2010 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award, and a 2010 Innovative Use of Archives Award from the Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York. For a dozen years Stephenson conceived and operated "The Jazz Loft Project" at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University.
But Smith is not Stephenson's only subject. In 2015, he won the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Prize for his documentary essay on John Coltrane's first biographer, Dr. Cuthbert Simpkins, for The Paris Review, "An Absolute Truth: On Writing a Life of Coltrane."
Also in 2015, he co-authored "Big, Bent Ears: A Serial in Documentary Uncertainty," a joint venture between The Paris Review and Stephenson's Rock Fish Stew Institute of Literature and Materials based in Durham, N.C. "Big, Bent Ears" was The Paris Review's first foray into mixed media on this scale.
Periodicals that have published his work unrelated to Smith, or barely related, include The Paris Review, New York Times, Tin House, A Public Space, Oxford American, and Smithsonian. He won a 2001-2002 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He curated exhibitions for both Dream Street and The Jazz Loft Project that had tenures at various museums such as the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, The International Center of Photography in New York, the New York Public Library, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke. He co-produced the "Jazz Loft Project Radio Series" with Sara Fishko and WNYC: New York Public Radio, and was a producer on Fishko's 2016 film, The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith. He has been featured on NPR several times, The Leonard Lopate Show, NBC's Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, and the BBC.
Stephenson was the 2012-13 Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Professor of Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill, the culmination of fifteen years at CDS.
In April 2013, Stephenson formed the Rock Fish Stew Institute of Literature and Materials, a new platform from which to explore and experiment with documentary work. Rock Fish Stew's inaugural project was Bull City Summer: A Season at the Ball Park, which concerns a season-long project to document the sights and sounds and stories at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, employing a team of writers, art photographers, and mixed-media artists. Photographers included Kate Joyce, Leah Sobsey, Alec Soth, Hank Willis Thomas, and Hiroshi Watanabe.
Coming soon.
Love and Work, the working title of a finished manuscript elaborating on Stephenson's manner of writing and documentary work, called "lyric research" by poet Ross Gay. Love and Work contains research and writing about the musicians Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Joe Henry, the poets Betty Adcock and Claudia Emerson, writer Amy Hempel and avant-garde musician David Moore, writers Cormac McCarthy and Joseph Mitchell, artist Cy Twombly, musicians Liz Harris (aka "Grouper") and Jason Molina, and Virginia Wald, who was a teenager dating a heroin addicted saxophonist in the NYC underground of 1961. The manuscript blends autobiography with various types of documentary work in archives, oral histories, and field observations.
Ongoing.
A TV series pilot set in 1959 in a Manhattan loft building which is an after-hours haunt of jazz musicians, most struggling.
Coming soon.
Love and Work.
June 2024.
Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir: Lucinda Williams (Ghostwriter). Crown.
2019.
Love and Work: Lyric Research on Jason Molina. The Brother in Elysium.
Aug 2017.
Gene Smith's Sink: A Wide-Angle View. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Aug 2017.
Gene Smith's Sink: A Wide-Angle View (Audiobook). HighBridge.
May 2014.
Bull City Summer: A Season at the Ballpark (Editor). Daylight Books.
Nov 2009 / June 2023.
The Jazz Loft Project: The Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue. Knopf (2009). University of Chicago Press (2023).
2001 / June 2023.
Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project. W.W. Norton & Company (2009). University of Chicago Press (2023).
2001.
W. Eugene Smith (Phaidon 55). Phaidon Press.
Learn more about Stephenson's books.
2024.
Finalist, Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) "Award for Excellence: Best Historical Research in Recorded Jazz," The Jazz Loft Project (University of Chicago Press, 2023).
2019.
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. As a fellow, Stephenson researched the original years of Los Angeles band Jane’s Addiction (1985-1991) against the backdrop of the culture at large – Reagan-Bush, AIDS fears, Chernobyl, the Berlin wall going down, early hard right footing of Gingrich and Limbaugh, buildup to the Persian Gulf War and Bush’s 91% approval rating, and more.
Dec 9, 2018.
Oct 5, 2015.
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award, "An Absolute Truth: On Writing a Life of Coltrane," Paris Review Daily.
2012-13.
Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Professor of Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill.
Nov 8, 2010.
ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor "Multimedia" Award, The Jazz Loft Project, "The Jazz Loft Project Radio Series," and www.jazzloftproject.org.
2010.
Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York "Innovative Use of Archives" Award, The Jazz Loft Project.
2010.
Finalist, ARSC "Award for Excellence: Best Historical Research in Recorded Jazz," The Jazz Loft Project.
2008.
National Endowment for the Humanities Grant for WNYC: New York Public Radio's "Jazz Loft Project Radio Series" with Sara Fishko. Fishko consulted with Stephenson about The Jazz Loft Project.
Apr 2002.
NEH Grant, "The Smith Collection of Jazz Sound Recordings." To catalog and create analog preservation masters and copies of recordings of jam sessions and formal jazz band rehearsals held in W. Eugene Smith's New York City apartment loft from 1957 to 1964.
Nov 10, 2020.
"Is This Home?" Oxford American, Issue 111. A reprint of Stephenson's article of the same title from Oxford American, Issue 34: "This year we’re compiling our 'greatest hits,' including selections of the most beloved music writing from our archive—guest edited by Brittany Howard."
Sept 10, 2019.
"Feeling Nowhere." Affidavit. Stephenson's first piece on Jane's Addiction and the late 80's / early 90's, the work for which he won a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship. Perhaps Chapter 1 of what could be a book.
Nov 23, 2018.
"Jason Molina's Love and Work." The Believer.
Oct 19, 2017.
"Bing & Ruth and Amy & David." Paris Review Daily.
Nov 5, 2014.
"Writing Tennessee Williams' Life." Paris Review Daily.
Sept 18, 2014.
"Stalking Sean O'Casey." Paris Review Daily.
June 3, 2014.
"An Absolute Truth: On Writing a Life of Coltrane." Paris Review Daily.
April 11, 2014.
"The Big Book: W. Eugene Smith's Unseen Opus." Paris Review Daily.
Nov 20, 2013.
"In the Darkroom with W. Eugene Smith." Paris Review Daily.
Aug 7, 2013.
"The Liminal Space." Paris Review Daily.
Mar 20, 2013.
"Southern Holiday Pt. 3." Paris Review Daily.
Feb 28, 2013.
"Southern Holiday Pt. 2." Paris Review Daily.
Jan 30, 2013.
"Southern Holiday Pt. 1." Paris Review Daily.
Aug 20, 2012.
"Field Notes." Profile of Durham Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo in Paris Review Daily.
May 18, 2012.
"A Mark So Fine: Joe Henry and You." Profile of musician Joe Henry in Paris Review Daily.
Mar 20, 2012.
"Two Poets." On Claudia Emerson and Betty Adcock in Paris Review Daily.
Winter 2011-12.
"Sonny Clark: Melody and Melancholy." Tin House Issue 50, "Beauty."
Dec 10, 2011.
"Branford Marsalis." Paris Review Daily.
Summer/Fall 2011.
"Late Night Sports Radio." A 12-part series Stephenson contributed to The Morning News.
June 22, 2011.
"W. Eugene Smith's Wichita." Paris Review Daily.
May 26, 2011.
"Mary Frank." Paris Review Daily.
Apr 20, 2011.
"Tamas Janda." Paris Review Daily.
Mar 30, 2011.
"Tennessee Williams." Paris Review Daily.
Mar 23, 2011.
"Letter from Guam." Paris Review Daily.
Mar 8, 2011.
"Letter from Japan." Paris Review Daily.
Jan 26, 2011.
"Sonny Clark Pt. 2." Paris Review Daily.
Jan 13, 2011.
"Sonny Clark." Paris Review Daily.
Dec 22, 2010.
"Dorrie Glenn Woodson." Paris Review Daily.
Dec 20, 2010.
"W. Eugene Smith." Paris Review Daily.
June 23, 2010.
"Whitney Balliett's Studio." www.jazzloftproject.org.
Fall 2009.
"Eugene Smith: Jazz Loft." Paris Review.
June 1, 2008.
"Safe at Home." New York Times Book Review.
Summer 2008.
"The Collector of the Everyday: Visiting the hometown of the great New York writer Joseph Mitchell." Oxford American, Issue 61.
2007.
"Gene Smith's Sink." A Public Space.
Fall 2007.
"Thelonious Monk: Is This Home?" Cover Story of Issue 58 of Oxford American, "Southern Music."
Dec 2003.
"Jazzed About Roy Haynes." Smithsonian.
July/Aug 2000.
"What Happened to Ronnie Free?" Oxford American, Issue 34.
Sept 27, 2024.
"Lyric Research: A Conversation on Writing, Documentary Work, and Getting Lost," Ross Gay and Sam Stephenson. Featuring special guest moderator, beloved Maine poet, Gibson Fay Leblanc. Oxford Hills School District, Paris, ME.
Sept 26, 2024.
"Lyric Research: A Conversation on Writing, Documentary Work, and Getting Lost," Ross Gay and Sam Stephenson. Featuring special guest Lewis Robinson and the musical talents of Seth Gallant. Dala House, Bridgton, ME.
More "Lyric Research" events will be scheduled for 2025-26.
Fall 2020.
"Jazz Record." Mark Rudio, Humanities, Volume 41, Number 4.
June 30, 2019.
One-hour interview with Stephenson that is an excellent overview of his work over the past twenty years, including discussions of new topics such as parenting and his new project on the band Jane's Addiction 1986-1991. Indiana Public Media/WFIU.
Jan 14, 2019.
"What Wasn’t There." A brilliant essay by London based Canadian writer, Emily LaBarge, in which she favorably includes Stephenson's Gene Smith's Sink in a discussion with writing by Nathalie Legér, Fleur Jaeggy, and Lydia Davis.
Aug 14, 2018.
Launch event for paperback edition of Gene Smith's Sink featuring a short film by Jem Cohen based on a chapter in the book and a discussion moderated by Steve Marsh. Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis, MN.
Aug 2, 2018.
Gene Smith's Sink reading and multi-media and discussion. Newport Restoration Foundation, Newport, RI.
June 6, 2018.
Mar 23, 2018.
Gene Smith's Sink event featuring a reading by Stephenson, a short film based on Sink by Jem Cohen, and live performances by Rachel Grimes, Áine O'Dwyer, and Jason Moran. Big Ears Festival, Knoxville, TN.
Feb 28, 2018.
Gene Smith's Sink event featuring a reading by Stephenson, a short film based on Sink by Jem Cohen, and Q&A moderated by novelist Allan Gurganus. The Durham Hotel, Durham, NC.
Jan 2018.
Oral-history interview that contains a unique discussion of Stephenson's childhood and youth in coastal Washington, N.C. and his new manuscript. Outspoken Podcast by Cal. St. Fullerton’s Center for Oral and Public History.
Dec 7, 2017.
"A Very Particular Bird." A short film, "Chuck-will's-widow," by Jem Cohen, based on a chapter of Gene Smith's Sink, with a written introduction by Cohen. The Paris Review.
Dec 2017.
"Framing the Shadows." A long piece on Gene Smith's Sink and Stephenson's previous Smith books. Vince Passaro, Harper's Magazine.
Nov 27, 2017.
"Music in all Things." An interview with Stephenson in a one-hour public radio piece by David Brent Johnson. WFIU Public Radio / Indiana Public Media.
Oct 26, 2017.
"Wide Angle with Gene Smith: An Evening with Sam Stephenson and The Paris Review." National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY.
Oct 25, 2017.
"Hansen Lecture in Public and Oral History." Titan Student Union Pavillion, California State University at Fullerton.
Oct 24, 2017.
"Gene Smith's Sink: A Wide-Angle View... [is] a brilliant and unorthodox new biography..." Nate Chinen, WBGO.org.
Oct 17, 2017.
"[Stephenson's] collaboration with Cohen is a lyrical marriage of artists and subject matter..." On Jem Cohen’s film "Chuck-will's-widow" based on a chapter in Gene Smith's Sink. The Paris Review.
Sept 19, 2017.
"Journalism and Art: Past and Present." A conversation between Stephenson and photographer Eugene Richards, moderated by Arezoo Moseni. New York Public Library, New York, NY.
Sept 7, 2017.
"Writing Roundabout: An Interview with Sam Stephenson." An inside look at the making of Gene Smith's Sink with The Paris Review's managing editor Nicole Rudick. The Paris Review.
Sept 2017.
"What to Read This Month." A recommendation of Gene Smith's Sink. Vanity Fair.
Aug 23, 2017.
"Gene Smith's Documentary Obsessions." The Prologue of Gene Smith's Sink and photographs of Smith's darkroom sink which is now Stephenson's desk. Literary Hub.
Aug 18, 2017.
"The Process of Not Knowing: Sam Stephenson and Allan Gurganus in Conversation." FSG Work in Progress.
Aug 6, 2017.
"W. Eugene Smith, the Photographer Who Wanted to Record Everything." Review and feature on Gene Smith's Sink. Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian.
July 31, 2013.
"The people behind Bull City Summer." David Fellerath, Indy Week.
June 3, 2013.
Interview regarding Bull City Summer in The Morning News.
June 1, 2013.
"The Bulls of Summer." Story and photo gallery on Bull City Summer by David Menconi. Raleigh News & Observer.
Sept 12, 2012.
"Nina Simone…What More Can I Say?" Interview during an hour-long tribute to Nina Simone. WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio's "The State of Things" program.
Nov 28, 2011.
"Needle in the Groove." New Yorker's Richard Brody commenting on Stephenson's piece about Sonny Clark in Issue 50 of Tin House, "Beauty." New Yorker.
Sept 15, 2011.
"Managed Mayhem." Dawn Chan on Chaos Manor. Paris Review Daily.
Sept 13, 2011.
"Following Eugene Smith to Japan." Conversation between Sam Stephenson and Roland Kelts. A Public Space.
July 20, 2011.
"Sam has, with his work on [The Jazz Loft], pioneered a new kind of historical research... His work would make Studs Terkel snap his suspenders with glee and John Dos Passos light up a victory cigar." Rebecca Collins, "Sam Stephenson: The Jazz Loft and the other side of history," Indy Week. Quote from Aaron Greenwald.
July 21, 2011.
"Sam Stephenson, who is doing remarkable research on the life of short-lived pianist and composer Sonny Clark..." Richard Brody, "Sonny Clark at Eighty," New Yorker.
Mar 26, 2011.
"Spring Travel: Pittsburgh Forges Ahead." It's heartening to know that Dream Street is still noticed. Rebecca Bengal, Washington Post.
Jan 13, 2011.
"[A] terribly sad, powerfully evocative biographical portrait of the great and short-lived jazz pianist Sonny Clark, by Sam Stephenson." Richard Brody, "Sam Stephenson on Sonny Clark," New Yorker.
Dec 10, 2010.
"Sam Stephenson's book [The Jazz Loft Project] is a work of social archaeology." Sean O'Hagan, "2010's best photography books: My personal pick," The Guardian.
Sept 6, 2010.
Radio interview. KRML 94.7 FM, Carmel, CA.
Apr 7, 2010.
"A Loft-Y Vision of Jazz." Victor L. Schermer, All About Jazz.
Apr 5, 2010.
Radio interview. KOWS 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA.
Dec 27, 2009.
"Every obsessive deserves his own obsessive Boswell, and W. Eugene Smith has his in Sam Stephenson." Fred Kaplan, "A View From His Window," New York Magazine.
Dec 10, 2009.
Powells.com interview. Powells Books.
Dec 9, 2009.
"Sam Stephenson's The Jazz Loft Project is an extraordinary record of another man’s heroic, mad undertaking." Grayson Haver Currin, Indy Week.
Dec 8, 2009.
"The Jazz Loft Project." The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC: New York Public Radio.
Dec 2, 2009.
"The Jazz Loft Project spotlights a hidden jazz realm." Rebekah L. Cowell, Independent Weekly.
Dec 2, 2009.
Radio interview, "The Jazz Loft Project." A joint interview with jazz loft legend Ronnie Free on Frank Stasio's program, "The State of Things." WUNC: North Carolina Public Radio.
Nov 15, 2009.
"[C]haotic and soulful… [The Jazz Loft Project] is an elegiac stew of sight and sound, and a singularly weird, vital and thrumming American document." Dwight Garner, "Coffee Table Books," New York Times.
Nov 13, 2009.
Interview by Ann Curry, NBC's Today Show. It's "Stephen-son" not "Steffen-son."
July 17, 2008.
Radio interview, "Remembering Joseph Mitchell." A joint interview with Stephenson and writer Allan Gurganus on Frank Stasio's program, "The State of Things." WUNC: North Carolina Public Radio.
2007.
Episode 3 of BBC-TV's series Genius of Photography.