BROKEN HALLELUJAH -flash fiction collection forthcoming from Poets Wear Prada, January 2026
NEW PUBLICATIONS:
• “Cobwebs,” Gooseberry Pie Literary, coming July 2025
• “B-Side,” Synchronized Chaos, April 5, 2025
• “Pocket Book,” Gooseberry Pie Literary, April 2025
• “Meet Elan Barnehama,” Canvas Rebel Magazine, March 27, 2025
• “Birthday Pie,” Synchronized Chaos, August 2024
• “Vending Machine,” 10x10 Flash Stories, Vol 18, July 2024
• "Broken Hallelujah," Paris Lit Up Magazine, Print Issue 11, February 2024
• “Snowflakes and Earthquakes,” Synchronized Chaos, December 2023
• “George Harrison Never Stopped Dreaming,” Syncopation Literary Journal, Holiday Supplement, November 2023
• “Everyone To Dance,” Syncopation Literary Journal, Volume 2, Issue 3 Summer/Fall 2023
• “Breath,” Sage Cigarettes Magazine , April 14, 2023
• "Wednesdays on the Bench," Spillwords, February 2023
ESCAPE ROUTE, a novel
Available at your favorite bookseller
Bookshop, IndieBoutnd, Amazon, B&N
LINKTREE
ESCAPE ROUTE is set in New York City during the tumultuous late 1960s. Told by teenager Zach, a first-generation son of Holocaust survivors and NY Mets fan, who becomes obsessed with the Vietnam War and with finding an escape route for his family for when he believes, the US will round up and incarcerate its Jews. Zach meets Samm, a seventh-generation Manhattanite whose brother has returned from Vietnam with PTSD. Together they explore protest, friendship, music, faith, and love during a time littered with hope and upheaval around the globe.
The 1960s were loud, idealistic, and divisive with a lot of good music and free love. Outrageous was the norm for a counter-culture that approached activism as theater and turned personal statements into political manifestos. The nation has shook off the sleepy 50’s, and seemed to be inspired by hope and which included a generational shift in power. Everything and everyone was changing. That was the hope.
It turns out that change is slow and messy
There were all those assassinations: Kennedy, Malcolm X, King. And the Vietnam War, a civil rights movement, and all of a sudden our cities were on fire. It didn’t take long for the US to find itself in one serious identity crisis.
And that was where Escape Route begins.
The 1960s were loud, idealistic, and divisive with a lot of good music and free love. Outrageous was the norm for a counter-culture that approached activism as theater and turned personal statements into political manifestos. The nation has shook off the sleepy 50’s, and seemed to be inspired by hope and which included a generational shift in power. Everything and everyone was changing. That was the hope.
It turns out that change is slow and messy
There were all those assassinations: Kennedy, Malcolm X, King. And the Vietnam War, a civil rights movement, and all of a sudden our cities were on fire. It didn’t take long for the US to find itself in one serious identity crisis.
And that was where Escape Route begins.
Praise for Escape Route:
• "With nearly incandescent prose, Barnehama deftly stitches the reader’s heart to his glowing characters, then gently tugs and tugs and tugs--" Marvin J. Wolf, author of Abandoned In Hell, and They Were Soldiers.
"Elan Barnehama has given us a powerful coming of age story set against the tumult of the 1960s, the War in Vietnam, and the power of memory and Jewish identity in a family of Holocaust survivors. This is a beautifully rendered novel, populated by unforgettable characters in an unforgettable time. Barnehama is a literary craftsman at the top of his game. Superb."
• Frye Gaillard, author of A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s, an NPR Great Read 2018
"The novel is totally charming, completely engrossing, moving, real. I love those characters- Zach, because of his way of throwing out those witty remarks and he has so much heart and courage. And Samm, because she is so cool and holy smokes, if I could only have been anything like her at that age. And the grandfather, of course."
• Kiki Smith, Professor of Theatre, Smith College, Obie Award winner for Costume Design
“A precocious adolescent boy comes of age in New York in the tumultuous late Sixties in Elan Barnehama’s poignant novel about youth and friendship and social unrest. Barnehama deftly links the upheavals of the day to his parents’ dark past as Holocaust survivors. The Vietnam war bleeds onto the streets, peril is everywhere, but so is hope. Escape Route is a celebration of friendship with a Sixties soundtrack and youthful yearning for a better world at a time when Dylan was pitching, with ‘Hendrix at short.’" William Luvaas, author of Ashes Rain Down: A Story Cycle, Huffington Post’s 2013 Book of the Year
ABOUT Elan:
At different times, Barnehama has taught
writing and literature at several colleges, led community-based writing workshops, was a fiction editor, worked with at-risk youth, was a ghostwriter, coached high school varsity baseball, had a gig as a radio news guy, and did a mediocre job as a short-order cook. He's a New Yorker by destiny. A Mets fan by geography.
Funny is always right. Rock ’N Roll always makes sense.
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RECENT AND SELECTED WRITINGS:
• “Everyone To Dance,” Syncopation Literary Journal, Volume 2, Issue 2 Summer/Fall 2023
• “Breath,” Sage Cigarettes Magazine , April 14, 2023
• "Wednesdays on the Bench," Spillwords, February 26,2023
• "Red Box," The Rainbow Project, December 7, 2022
• “Where Do We Begin,”. Jewish Writing Project, November 28, 2022
• ”Finish Line,” Drunk Monkeys, October 2022
• “Mayo Clinic,” 10 x10 Flash Fiction, September 2022
• "Bound by Stories," Jewish Writing Project, May 16, 2022
• “Everyone to Dance,” Red Fez #154, March 2022
• ShoutOut LA: Meet Elan Barnehama, May 10, 2021
• “Radio Days,” Entropy Magazine, February 2021
• “Listening From Home,” Poets Unplugged, February 2021
• "Home Team," Boog City, Boog City World Series Special, October 2020
• "Showing Up," Anthology on Friendship, Jack Walker Press, October 2020
• "Boston Common," 101words.org July 2020
• "Life Is Groovy," Red Fez #136
• VoyageLA profiled me for their HIDDEN GEMS section, May 8, 2020 .
• "Listening In," Rough Cut Press, Issue11, April 2020
• "Outlaws," Drunk Monkeys Pop Issue, April 2020
• ”Raining In The Holy Land,” JewishFiction.net, September 2018
• “Snowflakes and Earthquakes,” DrunkMonkeys.us, July 2018
• "Leaving Southern Comfort," HuffPost, August 1, 2017
• "Moses and the Refugees: Passover Thoughts 2017," HuffPost, April 8/2017
• "Readers Rule: The ‘LA Times’ Festival of the Book," HuffPost, June 14, 2017
• "Seinfeld Writer Peter Mehlman Pens Debut Novel," HuffingtonPostBooks, August 29, 2014
• “Everyone To Dance,” Syncopation Literary Journal, Volume 2, Issue 2 Summer/Fall 2023
• “Breath,” Sage Cigarettes Magazine , April 14, 2023
• "Wednesdays on the Bench," Spillwords, February 26,2023
• "Red Box," The Rainbow Project, December 7, 2022
• “Where Do We Begin,”. Jewish Writing Project, November 28, 2022
• ”Finish Line,” Drunk Monkeys, October 2022
• “Mayo Clinic,” 10 x10 Flash Fiction, September 2022
• "Bound by Stories," Jewish Writing Project, May 16, 2022
• “Everyone to Dance,” Red Fez #154, March 2022
• ShoutOut LA: Meet Elan Barnehama, May 10, 2021
• “Radio Days,” Entropy Magazine, February 2021
• “Listening From Home,” Poets Unplugged, February 2021
• "Home Team," Boog City, Boog City World Series Special, October 2020
• "Showing Up," Anthology on Friendship, Jack Walker Press, October 2020
• "Boston Common," 101words.org July 2020
• "Life Is Groovy," Red Fez #136
• VoyageLA profiled me for their HIDDEN GEMS section, May 8, 2020 .
• "Listening In," Rough Cut Press, Issue11, April 2020
• "Outlaws," Drunk Monkeys Pop Issue, April 2020
• ”Raining In The Holy Land,” JewishFiction.net, September 2018
• “Snowflakes and Earthquakes,” DrunkMonkeys.us, July 2018
• "Leaving Southern Comfort," HuffPost, August 1, 2017
• "Moses and the Refugees: Passover Thoughts 2017," HuffPost, April 8/2017
• "Readers Rule: The ‘LA Times’ Festival of the Book," HuffPost, June 14, 2017
• "Seinfeld Writer Peter Mehlman Pens Debut Novel," HuffingtonPostBooks, August 29, 2014
My essay, SHOWING UP, in Friends: Voice On the Gift Of Companionship
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Editor, A Mile in Our Shoes - Personal stories of global journeys
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My story "Just Be,” included in Running Wild Anthology of Stories
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Coming of age, 1960s, Vietnam War, PTSD, escape, Holocaust, New York City, Veterans, love, rock and roll, NY Mets, baseball, Sandy Koufax, in country, My Lai, Vietnam Veterans, Washington DC, Queens, Kent State, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, diners, protests, Brooklyn Dodgers