Benjamin Anastas, Writer - Marfa, Fall 2006
Benjamin Anastas is the author of two novels, An Underachiever’s Diary (1998, Dial Press) and The Faithful Narrative of a Pastor’s Disappearance (FSG, 2001), which was named among the year’s Notable Books in The New York Times. His novella Versace Enthroned with Saints Margaret, Jerome, Alex and the Angel Donatella appeared in The Yale Review and was awarded the magazine’s Smart Family Foundation Prize for fiction in 2005. His reviews, essays and fiction have appeared in a number of publications including Bookforum, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, Men’s Vogue and GQ.
Marfa is a remarkable place for any number of reasons, but I will always remember it as the green garden on the horizon that I pedaled towards on an old blue bike while my head rang with sentences and paragraphs I had yet to write down. I arrived with approximately 15 pages of text and a few more pages of notes. I left with the first half of the novel written and a very clear idea of where the rest of the book needs to go. For this I give thanks to the Inca Doves, and the hummingbirds, and the trains that seemed ways to whistle their arrival…
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Lannan Foundation announced that it has awarded its 2006 Lifetime Achievement Prize for Cultural Freedom to the British journalist and author Robert Fisk.