Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. Lethem was born on February 19, 1964. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, was published in 1994 and is a genre work that mixes elements of science fiction and detective fiction.

In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, a novel that won the National Book Critics Circle Award and achieved mainstream success. The Fortress of Solitude, published in 2003, became a New York Times Best Seller.

Lethem was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005. Since 2011, he has been sharing his expertise and passion for literature by teaching creative writing at Pomona College.