Steve Weinberg
The anxiety of the blank page. Where do I begin? I suppose at the beginning.
I was born on December 12, 1985, in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, a suburb outside of Philadelphia. I went to a diverse, public high school known as Cheltenham High School. My affinity for literature began there. I was one of those students who reads Catcher in the Rye and believes that he is living a parallel life to Holden Caulfield.
The Catcher in the Rye, though, stopped being my favorite book shortly into college. I attended Carnegie Mellon University, where I majored in English and History, and minored in Philosophy. While in college, I discovered existential literature, specifically the writings of Kafka, Camus, and Dostoevsky.
When I graduated college in 2008, one of my immediate goals was to write a novel. It bothered me that I had spent my college years adulating other writers but had not produced anything of my own. I took a trip to Israel that summer on Birthright. I recall being rather nervous on the trip, and as a way to relax my mind, I thought of ideas for a novel. After not more than a few hours of thinking, I stumbled on an idea - the existential struggles of a 21-year-old girl on a study abroad trip in France.
I took a year off after college and wrote the first draft of the novel, titled The Test. I then began law school at Temple University in 2009. Throughout my three years of law school, in addition to constant studying, I fine-tuned my novel, at last finishing it at the age of 26.
After law school, I began working at a law firm in Philadelphia. In my spare time, I researched and wrote the short story, "The Coronation of Napoleon I."
I then chose to take leave the law for some time to teach English in Israel. For the 2014-15 school year, I worked in an elementary school in Be'er Sheva, Israel, teaching the English language and American culture to Israeli schoolchildren.
I am currently enrolled in a PhD program in Literature at Ben-Gurion University, in Be'er Sheva, Israel. My focus is on Modernist German Literature with an emphasis on Kafka, Law, and Humor.
I hope that I continue to publish on Smashwords, and that the next biography of me will be significantly longer than this one, more expensive, and written by someone other than myself.
Who are your favorite writers and why?
My favorite writers are Kafka, Camus, Nietzsche, and Shakespeare. It is impossible to explain why I like these writers without sounding bombastic (see, I already sound bombastic...)
What are your interests outside of writing?
Music. I love Mozart and the Beatles. I am also a huge fan of Britpop, particularly Oasis and Blur. I have been playing guitar since I was a teenager, and have studied classical guitar in more recent years.
I love dogs, especially pit bulls and boxers. I have an nine-year-old pup named Zoe, half-boxer and half-pit bull - the perfect combination!
I'm also a big basketball fan. My team is the Philadelphia 76ers, but they have been one of the worst teams in the league for quite some time now. I follow the NBA avidly and also participate in a highly competitive fantasy basketball league.
Read more of this interview.
The Coronation of Napoleon I
by Steve Weinberg
(5.00 from 3 reviews)
If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? When Napoleon crowned himself Emperor, the magnitude of the spectacle was evident to every witness. But did it matter to, let us say, the Siberian farmer who died shortly thereafter, never hearing of the day? This story of Napoleon’s coronation blends philosophy and history to answer the most profound of existential questions.
The Test
by Steve Weinberg
(5.00 from 3 reviews)
One of the key tenets of existentialism is to “live life to the fullest.” On a study abroad trip in the South of France, Marie feels enormous pressure to squeeze every drop of enjoyment out of life. But when she makes out with a guy at a party, she fears there is an infinitesimal chance she contracted HIV from this kiss. With this doubt tormenting her, she begins to feel like an exile from Eden.