Amy Bloom

Amy Bloom (born 1953) is an American writer and psychotherapist. She has been nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Biography.
Trained as a social worker, Bloom has practiced psychotherapy. Currently, Bloom is the Kim-Frank Family University Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University (effective July 1, 2010). Previously, she was a senior lecturer of creative writing in the department of English at Yale University, where she taught Advanced Fiction Writing, Writing for Television, and Writing for Children.
She has been nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Bloom has also written articles in periodicals including "The New Yorker", "The New York Times Magazine", "The Atlantic Monthly", "Vogue", "Slate", and "Salon.com". Her short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories and several other anthologies, and has won a National Magazine Award. In 2010, Amazon featured a page from a collection of Bloom's short stories in an ad showing the screen of a Kindle being read at the beach.
Having undergone training as a clinical social worker at the Smith College School for Social Work, Bloom used her understanding of psychotherapy in creating the Lifetime Television network TV show, "State of Mind", which takes a look at the professional lives of psychotherapists. Bloom is listed as creator, co-executive producer, and head writer for the series.
In August 2012, Bloom published her first children's book, entitled "Little Sweet Potato" (Harper Collins). According to The New York Times, the story "follows the trials of a 'lumpy, dumpy, bumpy' young tuber who is accidentally expelled from his garden patch and must find a new home. On his journey, he is castigated first by a bunch of xenophobic carrots, then by a menacing gang of vain eggplants."
Bloom received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater/Political Science, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Wesleyan University, and a M.S.W. (Master of Social Work) from Smith College.
Bloom resides in Connecticut. Though sometimes referred to as a cousin of literary critic Harold Bloom, she says their "cousinhood is entirely artificial and volitional".
She has been married to two men, with a relationship with a woman in between. She has three children with her first husband.