Jesse Kalfel's About An Author

Jesse Kalfel grew up in New York City where he went to the High School of Music and Art. He has a bachelor’s in studio arts and film, and a master’s degree, both from SUNY Binghamton. He is the recipient of two Hatch Awards and grants from the New York State Council of the Arts and the Massachusetts Council of the Arts. Kalfel is also the author of, So You’re Cremated, Now What? His other work includes screenplays optioned by Orion Pictures. Kalfel also enjoys writing and directing “short” stage plays which have been performed in Newburyport, Boston, and Manhattan.

Paper Ghosts was inspired by a few key events in his life. Growing up with a schoolmate who was a little person, Kalfel saw the biases of the world through his eyes. His experience working at a traveling circus with its midway let him to become close to the people who worked side-show acts. He also studied film with Nicolas Ray and film history with Ken Jacobs which exposed him to movies made during the silent movie era, especially in Ithaca, where Paper Ghosts takes place.

He says that his love of mystery and thriller novels led him to write Paper Ghosts. Currently, he is writing a screenplay about his mother who was in the Resistance in Paris during WWII. She passed away at the age of 105. Kalfel lives north of Boston with his wife, daughter, and their dogs and cats.