Jennifer Murphy's writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Mississippi Review and Wrath-Bearing Tree as well as Forbes, and the New York Post. In addition to her EMT work, she maintains a parallel career as an investigator and crisis adviser. She graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University and an M.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.F.A. from New York University. She is a volunteer EMT with the Park Slope Volunteer Ambulance Corps in Brooklyn that transports patients regardless of their ability, or inability, to pay.
“A love story and a war story that will cut the chords of your
heart. It's gut-wrenching, honest, sassy, funny, honorable,
brutal, ornery, defiant, and incendiary all at once. In
spanning the years between 9/11 and Covid, Murphy accesses both the
tiny and the epic truth. Her book is a tribute to first
responders but also an indictment of the world they live in. The
rescuers go out to rescue, but Murphy shows us that they need
rescuing too. Reminiscent of Mary Karr, Richard Price, Sarah Vowell
and other great voices of our times, Murphy has her finger on
the pulse of who and where we are now. This is literary street
medicine at its very best.”
*Colum McCann*
“First Responder tracks Jennifer Murphy – both Everywoman and a
singularly appealing, hugely big-hearted and fiercely ethical
wiseass – on her path to becoming an EMT before COVID hits and she
runs head-on into New York City’s tsunami of medical trauma.
It’s a dazzling ride full of jaw-dropping sacrifice, outrage, and
lunacy that allows us to glimpse the wild gratitude of being able
to share such a burden with others equally as selfless and
courageous in their service to the greater good.”
*Jim Shepard, author of The Book of Aron*
“It is rare that a book is 100% necessary. Even rarer is the
necessary book that’s also gripping. Jennifer Murphy’s First
Responder is that book – it tells us what we need to know right
now. The book’s a stunningly written journey into the lives of
those we need to thank, and never can enough. I wish everyone in
the country would read it.”
*Darin Strauss, NBCC-winning author of Half a Life and The Queen of
Tuesday*
“First Responder is a unique document: a warm-hearted,
intimate, unflinching, often funny memoir of a novice EMT in
NYC in the months up to & including the onslaught of the COVID19
virus. Jennifer Murphy is a wonderful writer, baring her soul
to us in irresistibly readable prose even as she chronicles a
sequence of harrowing emergencies. Think Bring Out The
Dead from a female/feminist perspective.”
*Joyce Carol Oates*
"Jennifer Murphy’s First Responder, the fast-paced memoir of
an EMT, is primed to act—from beginning to end. The author renders
a testimony to the most urgent moments of intervention in the big
city. Through this first hand account, Murphy, who is also a
keen-witted writer and reader, responds in a language that
penetrates through the adrenaline of pain and witness. This
speaker, who is always alert, also performs a true reflection, even
while driven by the speed and force of a New York City siren."
*Yusef Komunyakaa, Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth*
"First Responder is part memoir and part EMT tutorial,
making for a timely and intriguing offering."
*Booklist*
"Murphy offers a window into the world of EMTs, describing the
grief and chaos that come with being a first responder (along with
some unexpected, but necessary, moments of humor)."
*TIME*
"Touching on issues of race, gender, and related pay disparities
among first responders in post-9/11 New York City, First
Responder digs deep into Murphy’s experiences, as well as the
lives of others in her profession."
*Bustle*
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