Jonathan Baumbach is the author of 14 books of fiction including Reruns, Chez Charlotte and Emily, The Life and Times of Major Fiction and Babble. He has published over 80 stories in places including Esquire, American Review, Tri Quarterly, Partisan Review and The Iowa Review. Baumbach has also served as Chairman of the National Society of Film Critics.

In 1973 he co-founded Fiction Collective (now known as FC2), a self-described "author-run, not-for-profit publisher of artistically adventurous, non-traditional fiction."

Baumbach has taught at several universities, including New York University and Brooklyn College. He has been a Guggenheim and Ingram Merrill fellow, and has also held a fellowship with the National Endowment of the Arts.