Lannan Foundation

George Saunders has published two collections of stories, Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, and a children's story, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip. Of his propensity to use theme parks in many of his stories he says, "Basically, using theme parks creates a sort of cartoon-like mood, and that keeps me from trying to launch into some earnest, twenty-page description of some character's childhood." His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Story, and many other publications. He won the National Magazine Award in 1994 for his story The 400-pound CEO and again in 1996 for the story Bounty. He has explored for oil in Sumatra, played guitar in a Texas bar band, and worked in a slaughterhouse. Saunders, whom the Atlantic Monthly says "may be the most talented goof-off writing fiction today," currently teaches at Syracuse University.

George Saunders Bio and Cross Links

Michael Silverblatt, dubbed "the best reader in America" by Norman Mailer and "a national treasure" by Susan Sontag, is host and producer of public radio's premier literary talk-show Bookworm. Silverblatt, a Lannan audience favorite, has participated in more than 30 Readings & Conversations programs.

Michael Silverblatt Bio and Cross Links