Julian Rubinstein began his career as a 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 from the flight of an Indian tribe in Brazil to the bloody Hell's Angels turf war in Canada to John McEnroe in his art gallery in SoHo. Those and other stories appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Arts & Leisure Section, Rolling Stone, Details, Travel & Leisure, BlackBook, Men's Journal, Outside, and Salon. His work has been honored by the BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS, BEST AMERICAN CRIME WRITING, and twice by BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING.
His first book,
BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER,
was published in 2004 by Little, Brown. It won Borders 2004 "Original Voices" Non-fiction Book Prize, 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, a finalist for the 2007 Audie Award for Best Audio Book, and a New York Times "Editors Choice." It was named to 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. [Extended bio at bottom of page]
He is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation grant as well as a grant from the Dick Goldensohn Foundation. He has received fellowships from the Corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Ledig International Writers House, 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 translated in eight languages. Born in the Bronx and raised in Denver, he lives in Brooklyn.
Some of Julian's magazine stories that have received national awards and recognition include:
--His piece on John McEnroe, which was honored by Best American
Sports Writing in 2002, is frequently cited as the best profile of the
tennis star ever written. (The story first appeared in The New York Times
Magazine, but was later published, in the completely unabridged form that
won it two national citations, on sportsjones.com and espn.com.)
--After spending nearly a month in the western plains of Brazil with the Guarani
Indians, he broke the story, in Rolling Stone, that the fabled tribe
is not suffering from the highest suicide rate in the world (as has been reported
in numerous publications) but has been the target of a complex murder scheme
involving money, land, and the chief of their own reservation.
--He spent several months for Details magazine investigating the worldwide
battle for supremacy between the Hells Angels and their rival gangs. The story
was the first comprehensive piece on the seven-year biker war in Canada, a
saga so bloody it has already left more dead than any of the New York mafia
turf battles of the1970’s. The article also forecast the outbreak of
violence in the United States, which occurred only weeks after publication
of the story, in March 2001. Julian was briefly put under the protection of
the Canadian intelligence agency.
--In his first story to be recognized by Best American Sports Writing
Julian was the first to chronicle at feature length the arrival in the United States of New York
Yankees pitcher Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez—the winningest
pitcher in Cuban baseball history who made a dramatic escape from his homeland
after Castro banned him from the game. The story, about a defector whose escape only seemed to prove he could never really leave, appeared in the premiere issue of (now-defunct) Gear magazine.
--In a story, also for Details magazine, and anthologized in Best
American Crime Writing, he detailed the unreported, and spectacular rise
and fall of Sunset Strip partygoer, Jacob “Cookie” Orgad, the Israeli
ecstasy godfather and Heidi Fleiss hanger-on. Cookie went from selling discount
electronics under the L.A. freeway in 1990 to ruling the world ecstasy trade
eight years later. How? First he got creative about taking out all of his competitors,
even sending a hitman called “Macho” to dust the Arizona ecstasy
king and infamous mob henchman Sammy “the Bull” Gravano. Then Cookie
hired hookers, and Hasidic Jewish teenagers as drug mules to carry the pills
over the Atlantic from Amsterdam.
EXTENDED BIO
Julian has worked on several independent feature and documentary films and his documentary short, about visiting Attila Ambrus in prison, was an official selection of the Sheridan Film Festival. In 2007, he served on the jury of the Denver International Film Festival.
He was a contributing editor at Us Weekly, where he covered film and television. He served as music editor of Troika magazine, and covered pop culture for The Scotsman, Scotland's national newspaper. His book reviews have appeared in The Washington Post. He was one of the founding writers and editors for Gear magazine. His humor columns have appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times. He is a frequent guest lecturer on narrative non-fiction writing and reporting at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
He
has appeared on television
on CNN, ESPN, HBO, Fox News Channel's O'ReillyFactor and On The Record with Greta Van
Susteren, and on numerous radio shows, including NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, Public Radio International's To The Best of Our Knowledge, WNYC's Leoanrd Lopate Show, Minnesota Public Radio, WTEM's The Tony Kornheiser Show, ESPN Radio, ABC and many others. (See "News" page to listen to interviews). His writing
is syndicated by The New York Times Syndicate and featurewell.com,
and his work has been published in twelve countries.
AWARDS
Winner, Borders 2004 "Original Voices" Non-Fiction Book of the Year for "Ballad of The Whiskey Robber", published by Little, Brown.
Finalist, 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Fact Crime Book, for "Ballad of The Whiskey Robber", published by Little, Brown.
Finalist, 2005 Anthony Award, Best Non-fiction, for "Ballad of The Whiskey Robber", published by Little, Brown.
Finalist, 2007 Audie Award, Best Audio Book (serving as co-producer, director and narrator), for "Ballad of The Whiskey Robber", published by Little, Brown.
Notable Essay of the Year, Best American Essays, 2007, for personal essay about Julian's filming the last three years of his father's life, ("Final Cut") from 5280, May, 2006.
Official Selection, Best American Crime Writing, 2002, for story on Israeli ecstasy godfather, Jacob Orgad, ("The X-Files") from Details, Sept, 2001.
Notable
Story of the Year, Best American Sports Writing, 2002,
for profile of John McEnroe ("Being John McEnroe")
from sportsjones.com/espn.com, Sept.2001.
Notable
Story of the Year, Best American Sports Writing, 1999, for profile
of New York Yankees pitcher Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, ("The
Chosen One") from Gear, premiere issue, Sept/Oct, 1998.
Best
Journalism, 2000, from the Women’s Sports Foundation, for story on the
Sexual Politics of the Dunk, ("Slam
It, Baby") from Salon, Sept, 1999.
Finalist, Feature Writing, Online Journalism Association Awards, 2001, for profile of John McEnroe, ("Being John McEnroe") from sportsjones.com/espn.com. Sept. 2001