World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Richard Adams Carey

リチャード・アダムス・ケアリー

Richard Adams Carey

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1951-10-18 （West Hartford, Connecticut, United States）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
West Hartford, Connecticut → Sandwich, New Hampshire

Career

Occupations
Writer, Teacher, Journalist, Reviewer
Active Years
1970-
Affiliations
Southern New Hampshire University (MFA faculty, 2006–2019)

Education

Loomis-Chaffee School
Period: 1965-1969
Year of Graduation: 1969
Country: United States
Harvard University
Degree: BA
Period: 1969-1973
Year of Graduation: 1973
Country: United States

Awards

New Hampshire Literary Award for Nonfiction
2001
Work: Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman
Organization: New Hampshire Writers' Project
Result: 受賞
New York Public Library "Book to Remember"
1992
Work: Raven's Children: An Alaskan Culture at Twilight
Organization: New York Public Library
Result: 選出
Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year
2024
Work: The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire (updated edition)
Organization: The Bookseller
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Raven's Children: An Alaskan Culture at Twilight

1992 Reportage / Nonfiction

A reportage account of a summer spent living, hunting, and fishing with a Yup'ik family in Kongiganak and Bethel, Alaska, portraying a culture at a moment of change.

Indigenous cultureAlaskaEthnography

Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman

1999 Nonfiction / Environmental reportage

A nonfiction chronicle of the 1995–96 fishing season in the lives of four Cape Cod commercial fishermen, examining the economic and environmental pressures on their way of life.

FishingEnvironmental issuesCommunity

The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire

2005 Natural history / Nonfiction

A natural history of sturgeon combined with a global portrait of the caviar industry: its fishermen, brokers, chefs, smugglers, watchdogs, and aquaculturists.

Natural historyFood culturePoaching/resource management

In the Evil Day: Violence Comes to One Small Town

2015 Nonfiction / Local history

An investigative nonfiction account of the 1997 shooting rampage by Carl Drega in Colebrook, New Hampshire, and its impact on a small town.

CommunityViolenceCrime reporting

Bibliography

  • Raven's Children: An Alaskan Culture at Twilight
  • Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman
  • The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire
  • In the Evil Day: Violence Comes to One Small Town

Style & Themes

Literary Style
immersive reportageethnographic observationnatural-history description
Recurring Motifs
fishing and maritime lifedecline and resilience of local communitiesAlaskan indigenous life and traditionhuman–nature relationships

Legacy

Richard Adams Carey is recognized as a nonfiction writer who documents Alaskan indigenous cultures and the lives of New England fishermen from an on-the-ground perspective. He is noted for deep insights into community and environmental issues and contributes as a reviewer and critic.

Quotes

  • "Deep ecological journalism at its best, an effective and compassionate chronicle of a threatened way of life, and a worthy successor to such classic portraits of American fishermen as William W. Warner's 'Beautiful Swimmers' and Peter Matthiessen's 'Men's Lives.'"
    Source: The New York Times (review) (1999)

Trivia

  • He is the father of 'Gaelic Americana' singer/songwriter Kyle Carey.
  • He taught in Southern New Hampshire University's MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction program from 2006 to 2019.
  • He learned the Yup'ik language (Central Alaskan Yugtun) while living and teaching in southwestern Alaska and has written about those experiences.