Nationality: American. Born: New York City, 1936. Education: City College, New York, 1953-58, B.A. in international relations 1958. Career: Worked in various jobs, including bartender, waiter, junior high school teacher, technical writer, journalist, news editor, store clerk, and tour leader, 1953-79; lecturer, New York University School of Continuing Education, 1979-80. Assistant professor, 1980-…
Nationality: American. Born: New York City, 1931. Education: The Bronx High School of Science; Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, A.B. (honors) in philosophy 1952; Columbia University, New York, 1952-53. Military Service: Served in the United States Army, 1953-55. Career: Editor, New American Library, New York, 1960-64; editor-in-chief, 1964-69, and publisher, 1969, Dial Press, New York; member of the…
Nationality: Irish. Born: Brooklyn, New York, United States, 1926; became Irish citizen 1967. Education: A preparatory school, New York; Trinity College, Dublin. Military Service: Served in the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. Awards: London Evening Standard award, for drama, 1961; Brandeis University Creative Arts award, 1961; American Academy award, 1975; Gold award, Houston Worl…
Nationality: American. Born: Josephine Ayeres in Natchez, Mississippi, 1921. Education: The University of Mississippi, Jackson, B.A. 1942. Family: Married Kenneth Haxton in 1945 (divorced); three sons. Career: Writer-in-residence, Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe, 1978-82, and since 1982 University of Mississippi; visiting professor, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1984; Welty Prof…
Nationality: Australian. Born: Sara Fitch in Chicago, Illinois (immigrated to Australia in 1958, became naturalized citizen in 1972), 1938. Education: Attended University of California, Los Angeles, 1956-58; University of Sidney, B.A. 1968; attended Australian National University, 1968. Career: Field editor, Thomas Nelson, Canberra, Australia, 1970-72; tutor in professional writing, Canberra Colle…
Nationality: Irish. Born: Dublin, 1958. Career: Since 1980 teacher of English and geography, Greendale Community School, Kilbarrack, Dublin. Award: Booker prize, 1993, for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. Roddy Doyle's novels have fundamentally changed the possibilities open to any fictional representation of Ireland in the late twentieth century and early twenty first. Where Joyce had demolished the…
Nationality: British. Born: Sheffield, Yorkshire, 1939; sister of A.S. Byatt, Education: Mount School, York; Newnham College, Cambridge, B.A. (honours) 1960. Career: Deputy chair, 1978-80, and chair, 1980-82, National Book League. Awards: Rhys Memorial prize, 1966; James Tait Black Memorial prize, 1968; American Academy E.M. Forster award, 1973. D. Litt: University of Sheffield, 1976; University o…
Nationality: Australian. Born: Melbourne, Victoria, 1943. Education: Hale School, Perth, Western Australia, 1952-60. Career: Cadet journalist, Perth West Australian, 1961-64; journalist, 1964-65, and head of Sydney bureau, 1965-70, the Age, Melbourne; daily columnist, 1970-73, features editor, 1971-72, and literary editor, 1972-74, the Australian, Sydney; special writer, 1975-76, and contributing …
Nationality: British. Born: Cape Town, South Africa, 1939. Education: St. Andrews College, Grahamstown; University of Cape Town, B.A. (honors) in English, B.Ed., and S.T.D. 1962; Trinity College, Oxford, M. Phil. 1967. Career: President, National Union of South African Students, 1963-64; detained in 1964 under the "90 Day Law;" South African passport revoked, 1966. Assistant teacher,…
Nationality: New Zealander. Born: Marilyn Adcock, Auckland, New Zealand, 1935. Education: Victoria University of Wellington, 1953, 1956. Career: Full-time writer. Has held positions in public relations, nurse aiding, factory work and library work. Awards: Scholarship in Letters, 1961, 1972, 1993; New Zealand award for achievement, 1963; Katherine Mansfield fellowship, 1980; New Zealand Book award,…
Nationality: New Zealander. Born: Rotorua, 1950. Education: Two years of high school. Awards: PEN Best First Book award, 1991; best screenplay, for What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, New Zealand Film Awards, 1999. Agent: William Morris Agency, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10019, U.S.A. Main influence: Contemporary American, Faulkner, Selby Jr., Doctorow, Gurganis, Styron. * * …
Nationality: British. Born: Worthing, Sussex, 1933. Education: Trowbridge High School for Girls, Wiltshire; Sarah Bonnell High School for Girls; King's College, London, 1953-56, B.A. (honours) in English 1956. Career: Schoolteacher for five years. Co-founder, Writers Action Group, 1972; joint chair, 1977-78, and president, 1985-89, Writers Guild of Great Britain; chair, Greater London Arts…
Nationality: American. Born: New York City, 1927. Education: Sweet Briar College, Virginia. Career: Actress; worked for the BBC, London; directed the Winter Workshop of the Berkshire Festival; also journalist. Agent: Andrew Hewson, John Johnson Ltd., 45-47 Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0HT, England. In The Dud Avocado and The Old Man and Me, Elaine Dundy employs first-person, reflective narrators…
Nationality: British. Born: London in 1936. Education: A convent school. Awards: Rhys Memorial prize, 1964; Susan Smith Blackburn prize, for play, 1981; Evening Standard award, for play, 1982; Society of West End Theatre award, 1982. Agent: Curtis Brown, 162-168 Regent Street, London W1R 5TB. Nell Dunn begins with vignettes or fragmental episodes to build a picture of British urban life. Much like…
Nationality: American. Born: Hartford, Connecticut, 1932. Education: Princeton University, New Jersey, A.B. in English 1954. Married Joan Didion, q.v., in 1964; one daughter. Career: Staff writer, Time, New York, 5 years; columnist ("Points West"), with Didion, Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia, 1967-69; regular contributor, Esquire and the New York Review of Books. Agent: Janklow …
Nationality: British. Born: Dorothy Halliday in Dunfermline, Fife, 1923. Education: James Gillespie's High School, Edinburgh; Edinburgh College of Art; Glasgow School of Art. Career: Assistant press officer, Scottish government departments, Edinburgh, 1940-46; member of the Board of Trade Scottish Economics Department, Glasgow, 1946-55; non-executive director, Scottish Television plc, Glasg…
Nationality: American. Born: Asheville, North Carolina, 1920. Education: Biltmore Junior College, Asheville, North Carolina; Northwestern University, Chicago, B.A. Career: Writer and lecturer. Awards: Guggenheim fellowship, 1955; Thomas Wolfe Memorial Trophy, 1955; Hillman award, 1958; special Waukegan Club award (Chicago Friends of American Writers), 1963; National Endowment for the Humanities se…
Nationality: American. Born: Durham, North Carolina, 1944. Education: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A. 1966, M.A.T., 1972, Ph.D. 1977. Military Service: U.S. Air Force, 1967-71, piloted reconnaissance and forward air control missions in Southeast Asia during Vietnam War; received Distinguished Flying Cross. Career: English teacher, Southern High School, Durham, North Carolina, 197…
Nationality: New Zealander. Born: Grey Valley, New Zealand, 1952. Education: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, 1970-74, M.A. (honours) 1975; Australian National University, 1975-78, Ph.D. 1978. Career: Postdoctoral fellow, University of Canterbury, 1981; writing fellow, l986, scholar-in-letters, 1991, Victoria University; New Zealand writing fellow, University of Iowa, Iowa City. Awards: A.W…
Nationality: British. Born: Derby, 1931. Education: Nottingham High School for Girls; Oxford University, 1950-53, B.A. (honours) 1953. Career: Journalist, House and Garden, House Beautiful, Harper's Bazaar, and Sunday Times, all London, 1954-62; since 1964 freelance reviewer, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, Times, and New Statesman, all London. Awards: Southern Arts award, 1981. Fellow, Roy…
Pseudonym for Anna Margaret Haycraft. Nationality: British. Born: Anna Margaret Lindholm in Liverpool, 1932; grew up in Penmaenmawr, Wales. Education: Bangor County Grammar School, Gwynedd; Liverpool School of Art; postulant, Convent of Notre Dame de Namur, Liverpool. Career: Director, Duckworth, publishers, London. Columnist ("Home Life"), the Spectator, London, the Universe, London…
Nationality: American. Born: Los Angeles, 1964. Education: Bennington College, Vermont, B.A. 1986. Agent: International Creative Management, 40 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10019, U.S.A. Bret Easton Ellis's novels to date explore the apathy, boredom, and alienation of the "brat pack" or "blank generation" of affluent white youth in the United States in the 1980s. Whether set in Los Angeles…
Nationality: American. Born: Washington, D.C., 1962. Education: Attended Stanford University. Agent: c/o Publicity Department, Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020, U.S.A. Among the vanguard of emerging African-American novelists, Trey Ellis is chiefly known for his highly celebrated first novel Platitudes and the multicultural, slightly apolitical …
Nationality: American. Born: 1948. Career: Has held a variety of jobs, including country club caddy, 1965-84. Since 1984, full-time writer. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assc., 146 East 19th St., New York, New York 10003, U.S.A. Labeling James Ellroy a writer of hardboiled crime or noir fiction oversimplifies his contribution to American imaginative writing. Although his earliest novels belong t…
Nationality: American. Born: Chicago, Illinois, 1927. Education: The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1944-45; Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1947-49, B.A. 1949; St. Antony's College, Oxford (Fulbright scholar), 1954-55. Military Service: Served in the United States Navy, 1945-46, and the United States Army, 1950-52. Career: Reporter, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1949-5…
Nationality: British. Born: Lagos, Nigeria, 1944. Education: Methodist Girls' High School, Lagos; University of London, B.Sc. (honors) in sociology 1972. Career: Librarian, 1960-64; library officer, British Museum, London, 1965-69; youth worker and resident student, Race, 1974-76; community worker, Camden Council, London, 1976-78; visiting lecturer at 11 universities in the United States, 1…
Nationality: American. Born: Little Falls, Minnesota, 1954. Education: Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, B.A. 1976; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, M.A. 1977. Career: Visiting poetry teacher, North Dakota State Arts Council, 1977-78; creative writing teacher, Johns Hopkins University, 1978-79; visiting fellow, Dartmouth College, 1981. Member, Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa. Awards: M…
Has also written as Ahmed Yousuf. Nationality: Indian. Born: Dabhel, Surat, 1931. Education: The University of South Africa, Pretoria, B.A. 1956, B.A. (honours) in English 1964. Career: Teacher at a secondary school, Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, 1980-85. Awards: English Academy of Southern Africa Schreiner award, 1979. Ahmed Essop's fiction displays a marvelously realized sense of place an…
Nationality: American. Born: Fort Gordon, Georgia, 1956. Education: University of Miami, A.B. 1977; attended University of Oregon, 1978-80; Brown University, A.M. 1982. Career: Worked as jazz musician, ranch worker, and high school teacher; associate professor of English and director of graduate creative writing program, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 1985-89; associate professor of English, U…
Nationality: British. Born: Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 1948. Education: St. Catherine's School, Twickenham, Middlesex, 1954-67; University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, 1967-72, M.A. in modern history 1972; College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1969-70. Career: Editor, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament newspaper Sanity, London, 1973-74; freelance journalist, 1975-82; poetry edit…
Nationality: Somali. Born: Baidoa, 1945. Education: Istituto di Magistrale, Mogadiscio, Somalia, 1964; Panjab University, Chindigarh, India, 1966-70; University of London, 1974-75; University of Essex, Colchester, 1975-76. Career: Clerk-typist, Ministry of Education, and secondary school teacher, 1969-71, Mogadiscio; teacher, Wardhiigley Secondary School, 1970-71; lecturer, Somali National Univers…
Nationality: Australian. Born: 1941. Address: c/o University of Queensland Press, P.O. Box 42, St. Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia. Beverley Farmer made an immediate impression with her first published work, the novella Alone. Published in 1980, it had been written ten years before and was set even earlier, in 1959. Alone concerns a student at Melbourne University who has been having an affair w…
Pseudonyms: E.V. Cunningham; Walter Ericson. Nationality: American. Born: New York City, 1914. Education: George Washington High School, New York, graduated 1931; National Academy of Design, New York. Military Service: Served with the Office of War Information, 1942-43, and the Army Film Project, 1944. Career: War correspondent in the Far East for Esquire and Coronet magazines, 1945. Taught at Ind…
Nationality: British. Born: Newbury, 1953. Education: Wellington College; Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1974, B.A. (honours). Career: Teacher of English and French, International School of London, 1975-79; journalist, Daily Telegraph, London, 1979-82; feature writer, Sunday Telegraph, 1983-86; literary editor, Independent, London, 1986-89. Since 1989 deputy editor, Independent on Sunday. Radio broa…
Nationality: American. Born: New York City, 1924. Education: City College of New York, B.S. 1949; Columbia University, New York, M.A. 1952, D.Ed. 1960. Military Service: Served in the United States Army, 1943-46. Career: Teacher, Manhattanville Junior High School, New York, 1949-53; guidance counselor, Lynbrook High School, Long Island, 1956-60. Since 1960 director of Guidance and Counselling, Gar…