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Jonathan LaPoma

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Jonathan LaPoma

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Born
in Buffalo, NY, The United States
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Influences
Jim Carroll, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Hunter ...more

Member Since
May 2014

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Jonathan LaPoma is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, songwriter, and poet from Buffalo, NY. In 2005, he received a BA in history and a secondary education credential from the State University of New York at Geneseo, and he traveled extensively throughout the United States and Mexico after graduating. These experiences have become the inspiration for much of his writing, which often explores themes of alienation and misery as human constructions that can be overcome through self-understanding and the acceptance of suffering.

LaPoma has written five novels, fourteen screenplays, and hundreds of songs and poems. His screenplays have won over 160 awards/honors at various international screenwriting competitions, and his black comedy scrip
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Jonathan LaPoma Hi Ludmila, click on the link below to check out a blog post I wrote titled "A Piece of Advice for New Teachers: Find the Humanity." Feel free to shar…moreHi Ludmila, click on the link below to check out a blog post I wrote titled "A Piece of Advice for New Teachers: Find the Humanity." Feel free to share this with whomever you'd like!

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Average rating: 3.69 · 377 ratings · 129 reviews · 7 distinct worksSimilar authors
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Understanding the Alacran

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it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions
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Review Blurbs for DEVELOPING MINDS: AN AMERICAN GHOST STORY

Inspired by his own travels, screenwriter and author LaPoma's narrative is raw and edgy, effectively anchored by two protagonists whose brio and "same sense of adventure" keep the story alive...Entertaining and authentic look at the troubled American educational system, courtesy of two men propelled by perseverance and adventuresome spirits. —Kirkus Reviews, Recommended Review

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“But that's just the way it was surviving in America's public schools. Every day was a struggle. Every day was psychological warfare, and if you didn't stay sharp, the system would grind you into human pencil shavings.”
Jonathan LaPoma, Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story

“So I returned to the northern strip of Miami Beach, the valley just far enough north to muffle the piercing South Beach celebratory voices, and just far enough south to dull the glittering lights of the Sunny Isles high rises, and I went to sleep in the city where exhausted people lived exhausted lives, but never stopped once to even ponder sleep--to even dream sleep an option, in the country that breeds ghosts, where the people can't understand why everything real always passes right through their arms. There was so much life out there for all of us, but so few would ever touch it. God, how I wanted to feel.”
Jonathan LaPoma, Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story

“...this world presents us with so many false prophets that it's difficult for those of us with the most faith and love to refrain from just giving it all away to the first or flashiest bidder”
Jonathan LaPoma, Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story

“But that's just the way it was surviving in America's public schools. Every day was a struggle. Every day was psychological warfare, and if you didn't stay sharp, the system would grind you into human pencil shavings.”
Jonathan LaPoma, Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story

“So I returned to the northern strip of Miami Beach, the valley just far enough north to muffle the piercing South Beach celebratory voices, and just far enough south to dull the glittering lights of the Sunny Isles high rises, and I went to sleep in the city where exhausted people lived exhausted lives, but never stopped once to even ponder sleep--to even dream sleep an option, in the country that breeds ghosts, where the people can't understand why everything real always passes right through their arms. There was so much life out there for all of us, but so few would ever touch it. God, how I wanted to feel.”
Jonathan LaPoma, Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story

“...this world presents us with so many false prophets that it's difficult for those of us with the most faith and love to refrain from just giving it all away to the first or flashiest bidder”
Jonathan LaPoma, Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story

“The more you know, the more you owe.”
Luis J. Rodríguez, Always Running

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