Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria. She is the author of
"Half of a Yellow Sun," which won the Orange Prize and was a
finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and "Purple
Hibiscus," which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. "The Thing Around Your Neck," her
collection of stories, was short-listed for the Commonwealth
Writers Prize for Best Book in Africa. The recipient of a MacArthur
Foundation Fellowship, she was named by the "New Yorker" as one of
the twenty most important fiction writers today under forty years
old. Her most recent novel, "Americanah," won the National Book
Critics Circle Award in Fiction and the Heartland Prize, and was
named one of the "New York Times Book Review" s Ten Best Books of
the Year.
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction,
poetry, and critical essays. Her newest novel, "MaddAddam" (2013),
is the follow-up to "The Year of the Flood" (2009) and her Giller
Prize winner, "Oryx and Crake" (2009). Other recent publications
include "The Door," a volume of poetry (2007), "Payback: Debt and
the Shadow Side of Wealth" (2008), and "In Other Worlds: SF and the
Human Imagination" (2011). Additional titles include the 2000
Booker Prizewinning "The Blind Assassin," "Alias Grace," which won
the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy, "The
Robber Bride," "Cat s Eye," "The Handmaid s Tale," and "The
Penelopiad." Atwood lives in Toronto with the writer Graeme
Gibson.
Russell Banks is the prize-winning author of seventeen books of
fiction, including the novels "Continental Drift" and
"Cloudsplitter," both finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Two of his
novels, "Affliction" and "The Sweet Hereafter," have been made into
critically acclaimed, prize-winning films. He has published six
collections of short stories, most recently "A Permanent Member of
the Family." His work is widely translated, and in 2010 he was made
an Officier de l Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Minister of
Culture of France. He is the former president of the International
Parliament of Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts
and Letters. He was the New York State Author, 20042008, and in
2014 was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame. He
resides in upstate New York and Miami Beach, Florida.
E. L. Doctorow s work has been published in thirty-two languages.
His novels include "Andrew s Brain," "The March," "City of God,"
"Welcome to Hard Times," "The Book of Daniel," "Ragtime," "Loon
Lake," " World s Fair," "Billy Bathgate," "The Waterworks," and
"Homer and Langley." He has published three volumes of short
fiction, "Lives of the Poets," "Sweet Land Stories," and "All the
Time in the World," and three collections of essays,
"Creationists," "Reporting the Universe" (The Harvard-Massey
Lectures in the History of American Civilization), and "Jack
London, Hemingway and the Constitution." There have been five film
adaptations of his work. Among his honors are the National Book
Award, two Pen/Faulkner Awards, three National Book Critics Circle
Awards, the PEN Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American
Fiction, the Gold Medal for fiction of the American Academy of Arts
and Letters, and the presidentially conferred National Humanities
Medal.
Edward P. Jones, a "New York Times" best-selling author, has been
awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Critics
Circle award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and
the Lannan Literary Award for "The Known World." He lives in
Washington, D.C.
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born in 1929 in Berkeley, California,
and lives in Portland, Oregon. As of 2014, she has published
twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four
collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of
poetry and four of translation, and has received many honors and
awards including Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud.
Her most recent publications are "Finding My Elegy (New and
Selected Poems, 19602010)" and "The Unreal and the Real (Selected
Short Stories)," which received the 2012 Oregon Book Award for
fiction.
Marilynne Robinson is the recipient of a 2012 National Humanities
Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama for her grace and
intelligence in writing. She is the author of "Gilead," winner of
the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics
Circle Award, and "Home," winner of the Orange Prize and the Los
Angeles Times Book Prize and a finalist for the National Book
Award. Her first novel, "Housekeeping," won the PEN/Hemingway
Award. Robinson s nonfiction books include "When I Was a Child I
Read Books," "Absence of Mind," "The Death of Adam," and "Mother
Country," which was nominated for a National Book Award. She
teaches at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop and lives in
Iowa City.
Wallace Stegner wrote thirty-five books over a sixty-year career.
Among the novels are "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (1943), "All The
Little Live Things" (Commonwealth Club Gold Medal, 1967), "Angle of
Repose" (Pulitzer Prize, 1972), "The Spectator Bird" (National Book
Award, 1977), and "Crossing to Safety" (1987.) His nonfiction
includes "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian" (1954), "Wolf Willow (A
History, A Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier)"
(1962), "The Sound of Mountain Water" (1969), and "Where the
Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the
West" (1992), which earned him a nomination for the National Book
Critics Circle award. In 1946 Stegner started the Creative Writing
Program at Stanford University, where he served on the faculty
until 1971. He was twice a Guggenheim Fellow and a Senior Fellow of
the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a member of the
National Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy
of Arts and Letters. He died at eighty-four, on April 13, 1993.
Robert Stone s novel "Dog Soldiers" won the National Book Award.
His other novels include "A Flag for Sunrise," which was nominated
for the PEN/Faulkner Award, "Children of Light," and "Bay of
Souls." He also published a memoir, "Prime Green: Remembering the
Sixties." His latest novel, "Death of the Black-Haired Girl," was
published in fall of 2013. He lives in Key West, Florida.
Jeanette Winterson s first novel, "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,"
won the 1985 Whitbread Prize for a First Novel and was adapted for
television by Winterson in 1990. She won the 1987 John Llewellyn
Rhys Prize for "The Passion." Her stage adaptation of "The
PowerBook" in 2002 opened at the Royal National Theatre, London.
Winterson was made an officer of Order of the British Empire (OBE)
at the 2006 New Year Honours "For services to literature." She is a
two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Awards: "Written on the
Body" won in the category of Lesbian Fiction in 1994, and "Why Be
Happy When You Could Be Normal?" won in the category of Lesbian
Memoir or Biography in 2013. "Sexing the Cherry" won the 1989 E. M.
Forster Award. Her latest novel, "The Daylight Gate," was published
in fall of 2013.
Jonathan Raymond is an American writer living in Portland, Oregon.
He is best known for writing the novels "The Half-Life" and "Rain
Dragon," and for writing the short stories and screenplays for the
films "Old Joy" and "Wendy and Lucy" (both directed by Kelly
Reichardt). He also wrote the screenplays for "Meek's Cutoff" and
"Night Moves," and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his
teleplay writing on the HBO miniseries, "Mildred Pierce."
"
"Far more than a compendium of dreary 'this is how and why I write'
essays, these force readers to re-examine the ways they interact
with words. The rhythm of syllables as they play against each other
on the page and the way fiction, in particular, can transport us
out of the here and now helps readers gain perspective and aids in
our understanding of the world. . . With eloquence and grace,
highly acclaimed authors ponder the complexities of the writer's
life and art form."
"Kirkus"
"Dare I suggest that the unpublished majority find something . . .
aspirational in the very act of reading these essays?"
"The Masters Review"
"
Ask a Question About this Product More... |