Michael Anthony Oppenheim currently resides in Oakland, California, in the United States of America (although he confesses to having his doubts about just how united those states are these days). Mike was born on June 30, 1981 in a New York City suburb (But his parents were once kind enough to point at an apartment in Greenwich Village in order to explain that THIS was the place of his conception).
After a short stint as a lawyer, Mike’s father moved the family (including his older brother, Sam Oppenheim ) to the Hippie Coast…specifically the East Bay of California, about twenty minutes from San Francisco. He resided there from the age of three until his high school graduation in June of 1999. It is also there that he began his life long obsession with writing and the Oakland Athletics of the Major League Baseball Association.
Mike next moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to attend The University of Pittsburgh where he completed a bachelor of arts degree in Film Studies and English Literature in the next four years. He still considers these subjects to be the “perfect degrees for working in the service industry,” which is exactly what he started doing to support himself upon his graduation in April of 2003.
In July of 2003, Mike moved to Ithaca, New York to start a band, Punchclock. The band stayed together for about two years, reaching moderate success (their debut record, “Surprise Me” garnered Best New Rock Album of 2005 in the regional newspaper.)
Following that two-year stint in Ithaca, Mike, seeking to put an end to an existential crisis, saw an astrologer, reflected on the cosmos and the absurdity of it all, and decided to move back West, citing “irreconcilable differences” with the East Coast. After reading a book on Advaita Philosophy he decided it would be a fun experiment to roll a die after assigning six locations to the various numbers on the die, and move to the city that the die landed on. On June 10th, 2005, the die landed on the number three, and so Mike moved the next day by car to Portland, Oregon.
It is in Portland that Mr. Oppenheim began to pay heed to an innate desire to write more prose and less poetry and music. Despite a lifelong affinity for Music, (including an obnoxious obsession with the bands Nirvana, Pavement, Spoon, and Radiohead) his life focus has now harnessed on the art of fiction prose, specifically the novel.
When asked to share his “influences,” Mr. Oppenheim quickly cites: “The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, John Steinbeck, and Evan Williams three year Whiskey.” He thinks about what he just said, and asks for a retraction. He then claims, “I am my own influence,” because he thinks that it sounds more mature.
Mr. Oppenheim has written two novels, Dysfunction (2007), which is under contract for publication in some time line that seems to more closely resemble a black hole and dark matter, and Baby Doll (The Book) (2010). He is also the published author of several short stories, essays, and editorials. He is currently attending Mills College where he will earn a Master of Fine Arts degree in English and Creative Writing in May of 2011.
So be it.
