About
Luke Jerod Kummer is a writer and an editor. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, New Republic, Bloomberg Businessweek and the Village Voice. Kummer's 2019 historical novel, The Blue Period, depicts the tragic events that led a young Pablo Picasso to paint somber portraits in nocturnal shades, before Cubism turned the artist into a celebrity. Booklist called it "lush biographical fiction," and the story was featured in Literary Hub, The Millions, Full Stop, Marie Claire Greece and American Airlines' in-flight magazine. In 2022, Kummer's libretto for "The Mayor" became the closing act of Chilltown Boogie, a historical opera composed by Alon Nechushtan, and performed by Convivo Music and Nimbus Dance at the Jersey City Theater. Takers Mad, Kummer's 2021 Audible Original drama, uses the author's discoveries in a real-life unsolved murder to pick up the trail in this famous case that transfixed New York during the Gilded Age. He has discussed the story and his new findings on "History Unplugged" and many other podcasts and radio shows. In 2015, Kummer was honored to edit Shanoor Seervai's bestselling nonfiction Kindle Single, Daughters of the Red Light, the story of a Wall Street Journal reporter's return to India and her struggle to chronicle the lives of women and children in Mumbai's red light district. He recently provided research and consulting on The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future (W.W. Norton, 2025), by Keach Hagey, an award-winning investigative journalist. He is currently working on a documentary film about the legendary chef Jean-Louis Palladin, whom he profiled in 2015 for Washingtonian Magazine.