Whiting Awards
1 appearances
-
Edition 6 (1990) Winner
Stephen Wright
スティーヴン・ライト
Stephen Wright
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1946-01-01 （Warren, Pennsylvania）
- Nationality
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- New York City
Career
- Occupations
- novelist, writer, educator
- Active Years
- 1983-
- Affiliations
- Princeton University, Brown University, The New School
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa Writers' Workshop (University of Iowa) | — | Creative Writing | MFA | — | United States |
Iowa Writers' Workshop (University of Iowa)
Creative Writing
Degree:
MFA
Country:
United States
Master of Fine Arts in creative writing
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Whiting Award (Fiction) | — | — | Whiting Foundation | 受賞 |
| — | Guggenheim Fellowship | — | — | John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation | 受賞 |
| — | Lannan Literary Fellowship | — | — | Lannan Foundation | 受賞 |
Whiting Award (Fiction)
Organization:
Whiting Foundation
Result:
受賞
Guggenheim Fellowship
Organization:
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result:
受賞
Lannan Literary Fellowship
Organization:
Lannan Foundation
Result:
受賞
Awards & Nominations
Lannan Literary Awards
5 appearances
Works
Major Works
Meditations in Green
1983 Vietnam War novelA hallucinatory account of the Vietnam War, exploring soldiers' inner lives through surreal and violent imagery.
warhallucinationviolencetrauma
M31: A Family Romance
1988 family drama with cult elementsCenters on a family involved with a UFO cult, examining faith, madness, and familial distortion.
cultfamilyfaithmadness
Going Native
1994 carnivalesque novel / noirA carnivalesque, lurid story about a serial killer that critiques media, violence, and American cultural decay.
media and violenceAmerican culturemadnessnoir
The Amalgamation Polka
2006 picaresque / Civil War-era novelA picaresque tale set during the Civil War that reflects America's past and present with dark humor.
American historyviolenceidentity
Processed Cheese
2020 short stories / experimental fictionA collection of recent short and experimental pieces showcasing Wright's surreal and dark sensibility.
surrealismdark humorcultural critique
Bibliography
- Meditations in Green (1983)
- M31: A Family Romance (1988)
- Going Native (1994)
- The Amalgamation Polka (2006)
- Processed Cheese (2020)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- surrealistic imagerydark comedynoir elementshallucinatory imagery
- Recurring Motifs
- violence and mediaAmerica's odditiesmadness and faith
Legacy
Stephen Wright is regarded for his surreal and darkly comic voice, occupying a distinctive place in contemporary American literature. He has received strong critical praise and several of his works are cited as significant modern novels.
Quotes
-
"Precisely that brutal hallucination we desperately wanted to end."
Source: Don DeLillo (on Meditations in Green) (1983) -
"A sensational prime time novel...a pornographic twilight zone of beebee-eyed serial killers, drug-stunned pants-dropping road-warriors and 'marauding armies of mental vampires.'"
Source: Robert Coover (on Going Native) (1994) -
"This dark and lyrical tale of madness and prophecy speaks uncannily from within its period."
Source: Thomas Pynchon (on The Amalgamation Polka) (2006) -
"For Wright, America, past and present, is Wonderland, a place of marvels and horrors from which not even the fortunate escape with their heads."
Source: Laura Miller (New York Times Book Review) (2006)
Trivia
- Going Native was ranked #13 on Larry McCaffery's "20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction."
- He was drafted and served at Phu Bai Combat Base during the Vietnam War.
- Has taught writing and literature at Princeton University, Brown University, and The New School.