Nationality: American. Born: Eutaw, Alabama, 1937. Education: Livingston State College, 1957-61, B.A. in English 1961; Vanderbilt University, 1961-63, M.A. in English 1963; Breadloaf School of English, Middlebury College, 1967-68. Career: Professor of English, 1963-89, and since 1989, writer-in-residence, both University of Montevallo, Alabama. Awards: Story Magazine 's Story of the Year Aw…
Nationality: Romanian-American. Born: Sibiu, Romania, 1946. Career: Visiting assistant professor, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1979-80; visiting professor, Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado; professor of English, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1984—; regular commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Awards: Big Table Younger Poets Award, 1970; …
Nationality: British. Born: Birmingham, 1961. Education: Trinity College, Cambridge, 1980-83, B.A. (honours) in English literature; Warwick University, 1983-86, Ph.D in English literature. Career: Loan officer, Barclays Bank; poetry tutor, Warwick University; cabaret pianist; legal proofreader; arts journalist. Agent: Tony Peake, Peake Associates, 14 Grafton Crescent, London NW1 8SL, England. My f…
Nationality: South African. Born: Cape Town, 1940. Education: The University of Cape Town, B.A. 1960, M.A. 1963; University of Texas, Austin, Ph.D. 1969. Career: Applications programmer, IBM, London, 1962-63; systems programmer, International Computers, Bracknell, Berkshire, 1964-65; Assistant Professor, 1968-71, and Butler Professor of English, 1984, State University of New York, Buffalo. Lecture…
Nationality: British. Born: Woking, Surrey, 1936. Education: Balham Secondary School, London. Military Service: Served in the Royal Air Force, 1955-57. Career: Since 1958, staff member, Reuters news agency, London; reporter, 1965-70, and senior editor, 1974-94, Central Office of Information, London. Northern Arts Fellow, universities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Durham, 1970-72. I have no general s…
Nationality: British. Born: Lincolnshire, 1931. Education: A boarding school in Shropshire and at Runton Hill School, Norfolk. Career: Literary agent, Anthony Blond Ltd., London, 1952-57. Awards: W.H. Smith Literary award, 1981. Hon. M.A.: University of Bath, 1988. Fellow, Royal Society of Literature, 1981. Agent: Peters Fraser and Dunlop, 503-504 The Chambers, Chelsea Harbour, Lots Road, London S…
Nationality: Northern Irish. Born: County Cavan, Northern Ireland. Career: Screenwriter, actor, and producer for both film and television, 1980s—. Much of Shane Connaughton's writing is concerned with the notion of boundaries or borders, and interest in these artificial constructs is reflected in the titles of two of his works, A Border Station and A Border Diary. Considering that Co…
Nationality: American. Born: Atlanta, Georgia, 1945. Education: The Citadel, B.A. 1967. Career: High school teacher, Beaufort, South Carolina, 1967-69; elementary schoolteacher, Daufuskie, South Carolina, 1969. Awards: Anisfield-Wolf award (Cleveland Foundation), 1972; National Endowment for the Arts award for achievement in education, 1974; Georgia Governor's award for Arts, 1978; Lillian …
Nationality: British. Born: Preston, Lancashire, 1940. Education: The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, 1959-61. Career: Since 1961 professional actor. Writer-in-residence, St. Martin's College, Lancaster, 1982-83. Awards: Writers Guild award, 1977; American Academy E.M. Forster award, 1977; Hawthornden prize, 1978; Arts Council bursary, 1979; Southern Arts prize, 1985; Arthur Welton s…
Pseudonym: Harry Summerfield Hoff. Nationality: British. Born: Crewe, Cheshire, 1910. Education: Christ's College, Cambridge, M.A. in physics 1933. Military Service: Served in the Royal Air Force, 1940-45. Career: Schoolmaster, Leicester, 1933-40; assistant commissioner, Civil Service Commission, London, 1945-58. Part-time personnel consultant, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, 1958-7…
Nationality: American. Born: Charles City, Iowa, 1932. Education: Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 1949-51; Indiana University, Bloomington, B.A. 1953; University of Chicago, 1958-61, M.A. 1965. Military Service: Served in the United States Naval Reserve, 1953-57: Lieutenant. Career: Taught at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 1966-67, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1967-69, Co…
Nationality: Canadian. Born: Baden-Soellingen, Germany, 1961. Education: Attended Emily Carr College of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada; completed a two-year course in Japanese business science, Hawaii, 1986. Career: Writer, sculptor, and editor. Host of The Search for Generation X (documentary), PBS, 1991. Lives in Vancouver. Douglas Coupland emerged in the 1990s as a novelist who seemed to cap…
Nationality: Australian. Born: Perth, Western Australia, 1914. Education: The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, B.A. in English 1940, Dip. Ed. 1946. Military Service: Served in the Royal Australian Air Force, 1943-45. Career: Clerk, farm labourer, and casual worker, 1930-39; teacher, 1941-42; member of the faculty, University of Western Australia, 1946-50; Senior English Master, Scotch Co…
Nationality: British. Born: Brocket Hall, Lemsford, Hertfordshire, 1946. Education: Enfield Grammar School, Middlesex, 1957-64; Birmingham College of Commerce, 1965-68; University of London (external), B.A. (honours) in English 1968. Career: Volunteer in educational television, Voluntary Service Overseas, Khartoum, Sudan, 1968-69; freelance journalist and writer, 1972-86; since 1986 full-time nove…
Nationality: American. Born: Alma, Georgia, 1935. Education: The University of Florida, Gainesville, B.A. 1960, M.S.Ed. 1962. Military Service: Served in the United States Marine Corps, 1953-56: Sergeant. Career: English teacher, Broward Junior College, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1962-68. Associate professor, 1968-74, and since 1974 professor of English, University of Florida. Awards: Bread Loaf Wr…
Pseudonyms: John Lange; Jeffery Hudson; Michael Douglas. Nationality: American. Born: 23 October 1942. Education: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, A.B.(summa cum laude) 1964 (Phi Beta Kappa): Harvard Medical School, M.D. 1969: Salk Institute, La Jolla, California (postdoctoral fellow), 1969-70. Career: Visiting writer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 1988. Awards: My…
Nationality: American. Born: Ohio, 1952. Education: Attended Stanford University; University of Iowa, M.F.A. Career: Worked for Carnegie Corp., New York, beginning in 1986. Awards: Pulitzer prize, 1999. Recent critical praise for Michael Cunningham's novel The Hours, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1999, came as no surprise to those who followed his progression since the publication of A Ho…
Nationality: Guyanian and British (immigrated to Britain, 1969). Born: Berbice, Guyana, 1956. Education: Cambridge University, 1974-78, B.A. (honours) in English 1978; London University, Ph.D. 1982. Career: Director, Centre for Caribbean Studies, University of Warwick. Awards: Cambridge University Quiller-Couch prize, 1978; Commonwealth Poetry prize, 1984; Guyana Literature prize, 1991. Agent: Cur…
Nationality: English. Born: London, England, 1960. Education: University of Kent at Canterbury, B.A. 1985. Career: Trained and worked as a psychiatric nurse; visiting fellow, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, 1989-90; visiting writer, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, 1992-94; assistant professor of English, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, 1994-95; professor of English, University o…
Nationality: Australian. Born: Sydney, 1944. Education: Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School. Career: Journalist, president of the Australian Capital Territory branch of the Oral History Association of Australia. Awards: PEN Sydney Centre Golden Jubilee award for literature, 1981; Age Book of the Year award, 1981, for Turtle Beach; South Australian Government award for literature,…
Nationality: American. Born: Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 19 January1969. Education: Barnard College, 1990; Brown University, M.F.A. 1993. Career: Freelance writer, 1994—. (2000) At the end of most readings and lectures, a writer is often asked, "How much of your work is autobiographical?" The writer's reaction to that question varies, depending on the subject of the work. I…
Nationality: British. Born: Hull, Yorkshire, 1922. Military Service: Served in the Royal Naval Submarine Service, 1941-46. Career: Freelance magazine journalist and editor, 1946-59. Awards: Authors Club award, 1961; Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger, 1961, 1967, 1979. Agent: Curtis Brown, 28/29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4SP, England. A novelist in various genres, Lionel Davidson has become most w…
Nationality: Australian. Born: Melbourne, Victoria, 1957. Education: Melbourne State College, B.A. in education 1979. Career: Taught creative writing, Peninsula College of Technical and Further Education. Awards: Australia Council/Literature Board fellowship, 1989, 1991; Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship, 1992, for prose; National Book Council Banjo award, 1993, for fiction. Much of my fictio…
Nationality: British. Education: Mary Datchelor School, London; St. Anne's College, Oxford, M.A. in history 1952. Career: Has worked for Clarendon Press, Oxford, as a social worker in a mental hospital, and as a teacher. Lives in Charlbury, Oxfordshire. Awards: James Tait Black Memorial prize, 1962; Cheltenham Festival award, 1963; Fawcett prize, for Judasland, 1990. My greatest passion in…
Nationality: British. Born: London, 1954. Education: Manchester University, B.A. (honors) in philosophy; Leicester Polytechnic, P.G.C.E.; University of London, M.A. (with distinction) in English. Career: Has held jobs as landscape gardener, mechanic, and carpenter; teacher for ten years. Awards: Commonwealth Writers prize, 1991, 1992; Lannan Literary Award, 1995. Agent: Lavinia Trevor, 6 The Glass…
Nationality: Australian. Born: Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, 1907; moved to Australia, 1947; became citizen, 1970. Education: Queen's Royal College, Port-of-Spain, 1916-22. Career: Accounts clerk, 1927-28, and salesman, Standard Brands, 1929-39, both Trinidad; clerk, Trinidad Clay Products, 1940-47; auto assembler, General Motors-Holden, 1948, cost clerk in car repair shops, 1949-55, freelance w…
Nationality: British. Born: Leonard Cyril Deighton in London, 1929. Education: Marylebone Grammar School, St. Martin's School of Art, and Royal College of Art, 1952-55, all London. Military Service: Served in the Royal Air Force. Family: Married Shirley Thompson in 1960. Career: Has worked as a railway lengthman, pastry cook, dress factory manager, waiter, illustrator, teacher, and photogr…
Nationality: American. Born: New York City, 1942. Education: The Dalton School and Bronx High School of Science, both New York; City College of New York (poetry editor, Promethean), 1960, 1962-63. Career: Butler Professor of English, State University of New York, Buffalo, 1975; Fellow, Center for Twentieth Century Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1977; since 1988 professor of comparati…
Nationality: American. Born: London, England, 1942. Education: Harvard University, B.A. 1963; Columbia University, M.A. 1966. Career: Member of Department of Language and Literature, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, 1966-84, writing workshop director, 1977-84; professor of English, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1984-85; Robert Frost Professor of English Language and Literat…
Nationality: American. Born: New York City, 1936. Education: Fordham University, Bronx, New York, 1954-58. Awards: Guggenheim fellowship, 1979; American Academy award, 1984; National Book award, 1985; Irish Times-Aer Lingus prize, 1989; PEN-Faulkner award for fiction, 1991; Jerusalem Prize, 1999. Agent: Wallace Literary Agency, 177 East 70th Street, New York, New York 10021, U.S.A. Don DeLillo�…
Nationality: Indian. Born: Anita Mazumbar, Mussoorie, 1937. Education: Queen Mary's Higher Secondary School, New Delhi; Miranda House, University of Delhi, B.A. (honours) in English literature 1957. Career: Since 1963 writer; Purington Professor of English, Mount Holyoke College, 1988-93; professor of writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1993—. Helen Cam Visiting Fellow, G…
Nationality: American. Born: Bombay, India, 1950. Education: Illinois Institute of Technology, 1969-71; Bloomsburg State College, 1971-72; University of Illinois at Chicago, B.A. 1977. Career: Has worked as telephone interviewer and demographics researcher. Currently, a secretary for Sears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago. Award: Illinois Arts Council award, 1990, for "Under the Moon;" Stan…
Nationality: Indian. Born: Dharwad, 1938. Education: The University of Bombay, B.A. (honors) in economics 1956, diploma in journalism 1970, M.A. in English 1970; University of Mysore, Karnataka, B.L. 1959. Awards: Raugammal prize, 1984; Nanjangud Tirumalamba award, for The Dark Holds No Terrors, 1989; Sahitya Academy award, 1990. Though no writer in India can get away from the idea of social comm…
Nationality: American. Born: Sacramento, California, 1934. Education: California Junior High School and McClatchy Senior High School, both Sacramento; University of California, Berkeley, 1952-56, B.A. in English 1956. Career: Associate feature editor, Vogue, New York, 1956-63; moved to Los Angeles, 1964; columnist ("Points West"), with Dunne, Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia, 1967…
Nationality: Indian-American. Born: Chitra Banerjee in Calcutta, India, 1956. Education: Calcutta University, B.A. 1976; Wright State University, M.A. 1978; University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. 1985. Career: Professor of creative writing, Diablo Valley College, 1987-89; Foothill College, Los Altos, California, 1989—. Awards: Memorial Award (Barbara Deming Foundation), 1989; Writing Awa…