Lannan Foundation

John Barth

John Barth’s novels include Once Upon a Time: A Floating Opera; The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor; Tidewater Tales; Sabbatical: A Romance; Giles Goat-Boy or, The Revised New Syllabus; and The Sot-Weed Factor. His two short story collections are On with the Story and Lost in the Funhouse.

Mr. Barth has written, “We tell stories and listen to them because we live stories and live in them. Narrative equals language equals life: To cease to narrate…is to die.” Mr. Barth, who is professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins University, received the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.

John Barth Bio and Cross Links

J.M. Coetzee

J.M. Coetzee was born in Cape Town, South Africa. His novels include The Master of Petersburg, Age of Iron, The Life and Times of Michael K., Waiting for the Barbarians, In the Heart of the Country, and Disgrace. He has also written a memoir, Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life.

Mr. Coetzee, who is a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, teaches at the University of Cape Town and the University of Chicago.

J.M. Coetzee Bio and Cross Links

Stuart Dybek

Stuart Dybek is the author of three collections of short fiction including, The Coast of Chicago and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods, as well as a volume of poetry, Brass Knuckles. His latest book, I Sailed with Magellan, is a novel told in eleven stories by a single narrator who navigates the stark neighborhoods of Chicago’s South Side, visiting all of its colorful characters such as the man who takes his young nephew to a string of taverns where the boy sings for his uncle’s bourbon; a small-time thug who is distracted from making a hit by the mysterious reappearance of several ex-girlfriends; and two unemployed youths who hatch a scheme to finance their road trip to Mexico by selling orchids stolen from the rich side of town.

Dybek’s writing has been frequently anthologized and has appeared in numerous periodicals including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Poetry, The Paris Review, and Tri-Quarterly. His most recent publication is Streets in Their Own Ink, a collection of poems.

Stuart Dybek Bio and Cross Links

Lawrence Weschler

Lawrence Weschler was for over twenty years a staff writer at The New Yorker, where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies. His books of political reportage include The Passion of Poland and A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers. His “Passions and Wonders” series includes David Hockney’s Cameraworks and most recently, Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences. He is currently director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU and serves as artistic director for the Chicago Humanities Festival. Weschler was a featured author in Readings & Conversations in 2007.

Lawrence Weschler Bio and Cross Links

Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn, a professor emeritus of political science at Boston University, is the author of twenty books, including You Can’t Remain Neutral on a Moving Train, a powerful memoir of his life and political activism, and A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present, a history written from the standpoint of those who have been marginalized politically and economically and whose struggles have been largely omitted from most histories. Howard Zinn died on January 27, 2010. A summary of his life work can be viewed here in the New York Times

Howard Zinn Bio and Cross Links

William Gass

William Gass is a novelist, essayist, philosopher, and teacher. Mr. Gass, whose books include Cartesian Sonata, The Tunnel, and Omensetter’s Luck, received the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. William Gass states in his essay Culture, Self, and Society , “A culture morally and functionally fails which does not let its crazies, its artists and its saints, its scientists and politicians, claim, on occasion, a higher law than its own congresses can pass, traditions permit, or conscience conceive.”

William Gass Bio and Cross Links

Grace Paley

Ken Smith

Lucille Clifton

Lucille Clifton was born in 1936 in Depew, New York. Her luminous and incisive poems have been published in nine books, including The Book of Light, Quilting, and Next.

Ms. Clifton has said, “I’ve always been a person who found more interesting the stories between the stories. I’ve always wondered the hows and the whys to things. Why is this like this? What has gone into making us who we are? Is it good or not so good? What is destroying us? What will keep us warm?”

Ms. Clifton, who has also written numerous books for children, received a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1996. She was Distinguished Professor for Humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Ms Clifton died on February 13th, 2010.

Lucille Clifton Bio and Cross Links

Howard Norman