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Peter Orner

ピーター・オーナー

Peter Orner

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality
American
Languages
English
Residence History
Highland Park, Illinois (grew up) → Chicago (birthplace) → Hanover, New Hampshire (Dartmouth College) → Namibia (Fulbright / teaching)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Professor, Essayist
Active Years
2001-
Affiliations
Dartmouth College (Professor of English and Creative Writing), San Francisco State University (former faculty), Iowa Writers' Workshop (lecturer), Warren Wilson MFA Program (lecturer)
Influenced By
Unknown (influenced by various contemporary short-story writers)
Influenced
Younger writers and students taught in MFA programs

Education

University of Michigan
Degree: BA
Year of Graduation: 1990
Country: United States
Received BA (1990)
Northeastern University School of Law
Degree: JD
Country: United States
Earned Juris Doctor (J.D.)
Iowa Writers' Workshop (University of Iowa)
Degree: MFA
Country: United States
Earned MFA (creative writing)

Awards

Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction
2002
Work: Esther Stories
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Letters
Result: 受賞
PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
2002
Work: Esther Stories
Organization: PEN America
Result: ファイナリスト
Young Lions Fiction Award
2002
Work: Esther Stories
Organization: New York Public Library
Result: ファイナリスト
Rome Prize in Literature
2002
Organization: American Academy in Rome
Result: 受賞（2002–2003）
Guggenheim Fellowship
2006
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: 受賞
Lannan Literary Fellowship
2006
Organization: Lannan Foundation
Result: 受賞（2007–2008）
Bard Fiction Prize
2007
Work: The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo
Organization: Bard College
Result: 受賞
California Book Awards (Silver Medal, Fiction)
2012
Work: Love and Shame and Love
Category: フィクション
Organization: Commonwealth Club of California
Result: 銀メダル
National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism
2016
Work: Am I Alone Here?
Category: 批評
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: ファイナリスト
Edward Lewis Wallant Award
2020
Work: Maggie Brown & Others
Organization: Wallant Awards Committee
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Esther Stories

2001 Short story collection (fiction)

A debut collection of short stories about family and memory, exploring interior lives and moral dilemmas.

familymemoryidentity

The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo

2006 Novel (fiction)

A novel set in Namibia that examines past and present and cultural collisions through personal relationships.

legacy of colonialismcultural conflictredemption

Love and Shame and Love

2010 Novel (fiction)

A novel dealing with family history and personal loss, probing emotional complexity and relationships.

lossfamily historyatonement

Am I Alone Here? Notes of Reading to Live and Living to Read

2016 Essays

A collection of essays about reading and living, offering personal appreciations and criticism of literature.

readingliterary criticismrelationship between life and literature

Maggie Brown & Others

2019 Short story collection

A collection of contemporary stories from varied perspectives; widely praised by critics.

lonelinesseveryday revelationshuman relationships

Still No Word from You: Notes in the Margin

2023 Essays

An essay collection presented as marginal notes, dealing with reading, memory, and personal reminiscence.

reminiscencereadingmarginal thought

The Gossip Columnist's Daughter

2025 Novel

A novel that intertwines decades-long family history with a true-life unsolved mystery (published 2025).

family secretshistory and truthmemory

Bibliography

  • Esther Stories (2001)
  • The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo (2006)
  • Love and Shame and Love (2010)
  • Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives (editor, 2008)
  • Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives (editor, 2011)
  • Am I Alone Here? (2016)
  • Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge (2013)
  • Lavil: Life, Love and Death in Port-au-Prince (editor, 2017)
  • Maggie Brown & Others (2019)
  • Still No Word from You: Notes in the Margin (2023)
  • The Gossip Columnist's Daughter (2025)

Adaptations

  • Film adaptation of the short story "The Raft" (screenplay by Peter Orner, director Rob Jones, starring Edward Asner)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Concise, interior-focused proseCritical yet empathetic narration
Recurring Motifs
lonelinessmemoryfamily historycultural disjunction

Legacy

Peter Orner is a contemporary American writer praised for short stories, novels, and essays; he has influenced many young writers through teaching and has received critical acclaim and multiple literary honors.

Academic Societies

  • American Academy of Arts and Letters (associated award)

In Popular Culture

  • Film adaptation of a short story screened at film festivals

Quotes

  • Orner doesn't just bring his characters to life, he gives them souls.
    Source: The New York Times (review) (2001)

Trivia

  • His older brother Eric Orner is a cartoonist, creator of 'The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green'.
  • Has long association with Camp Nebagamon as counselor and village director.
  • Has worked as a human rights observer in Chiapas, a taxi driver in Iowa City, and as a sewer department worker in Highland Park.