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 all over the world, taking on a wide variety of subjects including John McEnroe, the mysterious deaths of the Guarani Indians of Brazil, the bloody Hells Angels turf war in Quebec, the Israeli ecstasy kingpin Jacob "Cookie" Orgad, and many others. Those stories and others appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Arts & Leisure Section, Rolling Stone, Details, BlackBook, Men's Journal, Outside, Travel & Leisure, Salon and others. They have earned numerous awards, and inclusion in BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS, BEST AMERICAN CRIME WRITING, and twice in BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING.
His first book,
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, was published by Little, Brown. It tells the story of the Hungarian bank robber and modern day folk hero Attila Ambrus. It is a book about capitalism, national identity and the tumultuous post-communist era in Eastern Europe. The book won Borders 2004 "Original Voices" Non-fiction Book of the Year award, 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, and a New York Times "Editors Choice." Julian co-produced, directed and wrote and performed the music for a radio cabaret style audio recording of the book, starring Demetri Martin, Eric Bogosian and others. That production was named a finalist for the 2007 Audie Award for Best Audio Book. The book 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. It was published in the UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary, where it was a #1 national bestseller. Hungary's leading literary magazine, Elet es Irodalom, called it "arguably the best piece of serious literature ever written tackling the Hungarian experience in the 1990s." Johnny Depp and Warner Bros. purchased the film rights.
Julian is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation grant as well as a grant from the Center for Investigative Journalism's Dick Goldensohn Fund. He has received fellowships and artist residencies from the Corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Ledig International Writers House, the Passa Porta International House of Literature, 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 published in more than a dozen countries and translated in eight languages. He has worked on several documentary films and is the creator and executive producer of the upcoming global documentary film series, the One Day Project, and Armistice Media. 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.
AWARDS
AWARDS FOR BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER:
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, narrator and music composer), for "Ballad of The Whiskey Robber", published by Little, Brown.
AWARDS FOR MAGAZINE WORK:
2009 Lowell Thomas Travel Writing Award, Bronze Medal, Society of American Travel Writers, for best magazine article about a U.S. or Canadian destination for his feature story on Aspen in Travel + Leisure magazine, January, 2009.
(Travel + Leisure, January 2009)
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, 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
for profile of John McEnroe ("Being John McEnroe")
from sportsjones.com/espn.com, Sept.2001.