Short Story Writers

Algren, Nelson

March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981

Place of Birth:  Detroit, MI

Biography:
Nelson Algren was born to Gerson Abraham (a garage mechanic) and Goldie (candy store owner) Algren in Detroit, MI.  Algren was the youngest of three siblings and lived with his family in a poor immigrant neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago.  He graduated from Chicago’s public schools in 1928 and in 1931 graduated with a B.A. in journalism from the University of Illinois right during the Great Depression.  He went south in hopes of working for a newspaper, and ended up with many different jobs, including being a door-to-door salesman.  In 1933 he worked at a gas station in Rio Hondo, Texas and wrote his first short story, So Help Me, which was published in Story magazine.  This led to a contract for his first novel, Somebody in Boots.  In 1939 Algren moved back to Chicago and worked for the Chicago Board of Health and also was a co-editor for The New Anvil.  He published several short stories and contributed to the W.P.A. Illinois Writer’s Project.  He married Amanda Kontowicz in 1937, but the two divorced, re-married, and divorced again.  His second book, Never Come Morning, was published in 1942 before Algren enlisted in the U.S. army in 1942, during WWII.  During this experience he wrote several short stories for magazines such as Noble Savage and Esquire.  After the war Algren published many books.  His breakthrough novel, The Man with the Golden Arm, published in 1949, won the first National Book Award for fiction in 1950.  It was later made into a film, starring Frank Sinatra.  Algren married Betty Ann in 1965 and got divorced her two years later.  He regularly wrote a column for the Chicago Free Press and taught creative writing classes at both Iowa and Florida universities, but struggled with heavy drinking and gambling.  Algren liked to grapple with tough subjects, and vividly painted Chicago’s overlooked urban life with including drunks, pimps, prostitutes, and other low-life figures in his novels. He moved to Paterson, New Jersey and wrote his fourth Novel The Devil’s Stocking which was published after his death in 1983.  In September of 1980 he moved to Long Island and died of a heart attack on May 9, 1981.

Selected Works:

       
• Somebody in Boots (1935)
       
• Never Come Morning (1942)
       
• The Man with the Golden Arm (1949)
       
• A Walk on the Wild Side (1956)
       
• Notes from a Sea Diary: Hemingway All the Way (1965)
       
• The Last Carousel (1973)
       
• The Devil’s Stocking (1983)

Awards:

       
• 1947 National Institute of Arts and Letters Fellowship>
       
• 1950 Newberry Library Fellowship
       
• 1950 National Book Award
       
• 1974 National Institute of Arts and Letters of Merit
       
• 1982 Fiction contest established in his name by Chicago Magazine
       
• 1983 P.E.N./Nelson Algren Fiction Award begun in his memory by P.E.N. American Center

Critical Reception:
Algren’s first book, Somebody in Boots, received little success during the Great Depression, selling only 750 copies.  Algren had better success with The Man with the Golden Arm, winning the National Book Award for fiction in 1950, and having the book turned into a movie.  His book Chicago, The City On The Make, was disapproved by the Chicago Chamber of Congress because Alger’s specialized on showing the rough side of the city instead of its successful business enterprises.  Algen’s comic novel, A Walk on the Wild Side was declared a master piece.

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Algren spent most of his life outside of Michigan and was greatly influenced by his family and immigrant neighborhood in Chicago.

Anderson, Lauri

October 27, 1942 -

Place of Birth:  Foxcroft, ME

Place of Principle Residence:  Hancock, MI

Biography:
    Lauri Arvid Anderson was born to Ruby Littlefield of “Old New England” and Arvid Anderson (a Finnish immigrant) in 1942 in Maine.  He attended the University of Maine and achieved his BA in English in 1965 and his MA in International Education in 1969 from Michigan State University.  From 1965 to 1967 Anderson volunteered for the Peace Corps in Nigeria and then served as an English teacher at North County High School in Vermont between 1967 and 1969.  In 1971 Anderson completed a MA in English at the University of Pacific and taught at Mizpah Mission School as the chair of English and Dean until 1972.  He then moved to Izmir, Turkey to work at the American Collegiate Institute as the chair of English until 1976.  From there Anderson went to Hancock, Main where he still serves as the chair of English and the Division Head of Humanities.  In addition her served as and English instructor for the Phillips-Andover Academy, a school for gifted minority students, from 1995 to 1997.  Anderson has authored five prose works and one book of poetry, many of which exemplify a sarcastic tone, and Anderson’s Finnish heritage.  He is the brother of poet Wendy Anderson and author Stuart Anderson and has three children, Eric, Charlotte, and Lucy.

Selected Works:

       
• Impressions of Arvo Laurila (2005)
       
• Misery Bay (2001)
       
• Children of the Kalevala (1997)
       
• Heikki Heikkinen and Other Stories of Upper Peninsula Finns (1995)
       
• Hunting Hemingway’s Trout (1990)
       
• Small Winter Wars (1983)
       
• Snow White and Others (1971)

 

Awards:

       
• 1996-1997 FinnFest guest writer
       
• 1995 MLA guest writer
       
• 1994 Honorable Mention, Fiction Contest, Finnish American Reporter
       
• 1988 Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future
       
• 1985 Selected for NEH Institute in Commonwealth Literature, Indiana U.
       
• 1983 Selected for NEH Seminar in Twelfth-Century Civilization, Mt. Holyoke
       
• 1981 Selected for NEH Seminar in American Humor, U. of New Mexico

Critical Reception:
    Anderson has written and received many grants to continue his academic and creative work. 

For Back to Misery Bay:

“Lauri Anderson deftly and often humorously captures the love-hate relationship that his Finnish-American characters have with Misery Bay, their hearts’ home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Many of Lauri Anderson’s Finns seem determined to raise their various dysfunctionalities to an art form, but through their very fallibility they tug at our hearts. As one wise old Finn advises his war-shattered nephew, People are really screwed up but love them anyway. They’re all we have.     
          —Judy Hakola, Lecturer in English, University of Maine

For Hemingway’s Trout:Stories:

This short collection of stories and sketches about Ernest Hemingway and an army of fictional characters who study his work is mildly interesting but lacks the order, tension and overarching theme necessary to form an exciting whole.
          - Publishers Weekly

Brief, amateurish essays about Ernest Hemingway here alternate with seven short stories, each constructed around some character or image from Hemingway’s work….some of the individual stories are entertaining, but the collection feels contrived, the prose dated by references to the Sixties. Book budget dollars would be better spent on new editions of Hemingway.
          - Library Journal

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
      Anderson teaches at Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan.  Several of his books, including Children of Kalevala, take place in Upper Michigan. 

 

Baxter, Charles

May 19,1947—

Place of Birth: Minneapolis, MN

Place of Principal Residence: Ann Arbor, MI

Biography
Charles Baxter was born to John and Mary Baxter in Minneapolis, MN on May 19, 1947.  His Father died when he was a baby and his mother remarried a wealthy attorney, on whose posh home Baxter spent much of his childhood in isolation.  Baxter earned his BA at Macalester College and his PhD in 1974 at University of Buffalo.  During his years as a student, Baxter experimented with poetry before moving on to fiction.  It took several years for Baxter to adjust himself to the customary literary criticism.  Baxter temporarily gave up fiction for academic writing when editors and readers spurned his first three books.  But after working for a time with short stories, he slowly built up an impressive repertoire of novels.  Baxter was a Professor of Writing at the University of Minnesota from 1974 – 1988, and is now the Creative Writing director at University of Michigan.  He currently lives in Ann Arbor, MI with his wife Martha, and has one son, Daniel.

Selected Works

Novels:

• First Light (1987)
• Shadow Play (1993)
• Feast of Love (2000)
• Saul and Patsy (2003)

Poems:

• “Imaginary Paintings” (1999)
• “The South Dakota Guidebook” (1974)
• “Chameleon” (1970)

Short Story/Essay Collections:

• Harmony of the World (1984)
• Through the Safety Net  (1985)
• Gryphon  (1985)
• A Relative Stranger  (1990)
• Believers (1997)
• Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction  (1997)

Awards

• 1982 Lawrence Foundation Award
• 1983 National Endowment for the Arts Grant
• 1984 Michigan Council for the Arts Grant
• 1985-86 Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1991 Lawrence Foundation Award
• 1991 Arts Foundation of Michigan Award
• 1992-95 Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Foundation Fellowship
• 1993 Michigan Author of the Year Award
• The 1994 Cohen Award for the best essay published in Ploughshares
• The 1994 Daniel A. Pollack-Harvard Review award to Shadow Play
• The 1994 Gettysburg Review nonfiction prose award for
• 1995 Ohio University Spring Literary Festival Honoree
• The 1997 Award in Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2000 National Book Award (Finalist) for The Feast of Love

Critical Reception
For Saul and Patsy

“Much like the episodic nature of his other works, including Feast of Love, Baxter weaves much more of a philosophical tale than a plot-driven one. But it is a tale worth telling, and well worth reading. As an author, Baxter possesses a unique gift of making real life rather interesting without sensationalizing it. Therein lies Saul and Patsy’s success, as a book with an indelible culminating effect - providing a genuine revelation for both the characters within and, quite likely, for the reader as well.”
    - MostlyFiction

For The Soul Thief

“The final twist to the tale is anticlimactic. Yes, writers are the most unrepentant soul thieves of all. They lift details from the lives of others with light-fingered ease. But when the story is well-told, no one notices or cares. It’s only when the theft is clumsy and the story misshapen that people can spot the crime. In this case, Baxter has been caught red-handed.
    - New York Daily News

“Pros: Baxter’s ethereal writing and witty mockery of academic intelligentsia reinforce his decidedly creepy story of identity theft. This novel strongly recalls Patricia Highsmith’s sordid tales about the sociopathic Tom Ripley. 
Cons: An unconvincing confrontation in the book’s final half belies the emotional depth charges of the first act, and a last-minute twist undermines the book’s cohesion.         
Final word: An intriguing opening act and a pair of deeply flawed characters heighten this fractured cautionary tale about the dangers of becoming persona non grata.”
        - Rocky Mountain News

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work
Although Baxter’s received his PhD from University of Buffalo and currently resides in Minneapolis, his writing reflects his native Midwest, often in the semi-rural, imaginary town of Five Oaks, Michigan. Baxter has created tales about the mostly small-town, small-time lives of teachers, salesmen, students, dropouts, and even an astrophysicist.

Hemingway, Ernest

1899—1961

Place of Birth:  Oak Park, IL

Principal Place of Residence: Chicago, Paris, Cuba, Idaho

Biography
Ernest Miller 
Hemingway was born to Clarence and Grace Hemingway in Oak Park, IL on July 21, 1899.  He attended high school at Oak Park and River Forest high school. Hemingway’s earliest writing was for his high school’s newspaper and literary magazine Trapeze and Tabula, respectively.  Instead of going to college after getting his high school diploma, Hemmingway tried his hand in journalism by working for the Kansas City Star.  After a few months of reporting, Hemingway left his job and tried to enlist in the army to serve in WWI.  He failed the medical examination due to his poor eyesight, but he was able to enlist in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps.  Once in Europe, Hemingway did everything he could to get as close to the action.  On his first day of duty, on the Italian Front, an ammunition factory near Milan blew up.  He spent the rest of the day picking up human remains from the debris.  As this was his first encounter with death, he was badly shaken when he finished.  His experiences in WWI had a huge influence on his writing.  Most of Hemingway’s books were semi-autobiographical, and many of his characters were based on people he knew or had met. The Sun Also Rises was Hemingway’s first successful novel as a professional writer. In his life, Hemingway was married four times.  His wives in order were: Elizabeth Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gellhorn, and Mary Welsh.  Hemingway and Richardson had one son, whose name was John.  Hemingway went on to have two more children with Pfeiffer: Patrick and Gregory. Through his sons John and Gregory, Hemingway had eleven grandchildren.  He died on July 2, 1961.

Selected Works
Novels:

• The Sun Also Rises (1926)
• For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
• Across the River and Through the Trees (1950)
• The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
• Islands in the Stream (1970)
• The Garden of Eden (1986)
• True at First Light (1999)
• Under Kilimanjaro (2005)

Non-Fiction:

• Death in the Afternoon (1932)
• Green Hills of Africa (1936)

Collections

• In Our Time (1925)
• Men Without Women (1927)

Awards

• 1953 Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
• 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 “for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.”

Critical Response

Hemingway’s early works received favorable reviews.  As his career progressed he became arrogant, and quickly lost favor with contemporary writers, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertude Stein, and Max Eastman.  After winning the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize, his international reputation improved.

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work
Hemingway spent summers in Northern Michigan as a child growing up.  His contact with the nature there made him love the outdoors.

Kauffman, Janet

June 10, 1945—

Place of Birth: Lancaster, PA

Place of Principal Residence: Hudson, MI

Biography
Janet Kauffman was born to Chester and Thelma Kauffman in Lancaster, PA on June 10, 1945.  During her childhood she was raised on her family’s tobacco farm in Pennsylvania.  This, combined with her current living situation on a farm in Hudson, MI has influenced Kauffman’s passion as an environmentalist.  Kauffman earned her BA in French Literature at Juanita College in 1967, and her MA and PhD at the University of Chicago in 1968 and 1972, respectively.  She began as a poet, and published her first book of prose, Places in the World a Woman Could Walk in 1984.  Kauffman taught English at Jackson Community College in Jackson, MI from 1977-1988.  She is currently a Professor of English at Eastern Michigan University.

Selected Works

Poetry:
• The Weather Book (1981)
• Where the World Is (1988)
Fiction:
• Collaborators (1987)
• Where the World Is (1988)
• Obscene Gestures for Women: Stories (1989
• The Body in Four Parts (1993)
• Places in the World a Woman Could Walk (1995)
• Rot (2001)
• Five on Fiction (2004)

Awards

• 1985 Rosenthal Award, American Academy-Institute of Arts and Letters
• 1985 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
• 1986 PEN/Faulkner Award nomination
• 1997 Michigan Arts Award

Critical Reception

Critics note that Kauffman’s background as a poet contributes strongly to her prose.  In fact, some describe her prose as a long poem.  She utilizes the poet’s tools of metaphor and rhythm to experiment with new narrative forms.  Though her work has been described as “minimalist,” Kauffman’s writing is based upon a firm foundation of detailed description.  Kauffman’s attention to detail enables her to successfully present believable characters.  Her writing usually features female protagonists and rural settings.  While a few critics have found Kauffman’s poetic style to be overbearing and to overpower her plots, most find it to be a fresh and effective approach to writing.  Kauffman uses this tactic to make blunt, typically feminist political statements.

      For Characters on the loose: Stories:         “At times humorous, sad, or sexually charged (the most original tale narrates erotic moments between letters of the alphabet), these stories           have the rare ability to describe subtle emotion within the minds of selected characters.”             - The New York Times         “Fifteen pieces from a veteran writer (The Body in Four Parts, 1993; Obscene Gestures for Women, 1989, etc.) that only sometimes get under           the skin or into the heart. Kauffman gathers up symbols in a half-casual way so that they seem—whether they really do or not—to reverberate on           a single theme.”               - Publishers Weekly         “Not exactly conventional ideas but Kauffman proves that she is not in it for the tradition but rather the pure imaginative possibilities of what           writing can bring to the reader.”               - Independent Publisher             For Collaborators: A Novel:           “Although the novel cannot transcend its fragmented structure, those who savor rich cadences and the unexpected, beautifully turned phrase will               find much to satisfy the senses.”               - Publishers Weekly

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work

Place is clearly relevant in Kauffman’s work, as is demonstrated by the setting her first novel Collaborators.  The location of the novel, a Pennsylvania tobacco farm, is reminiscent of Kauffman’s own childhood home.  Similarly, her 1984 collection of short stories features women in rural situations.  Kauffman was raised on a farm in Pennsylvania, and presently lives on a farm in Michigan.  Many of her works of both poetry and prose contain strong elements of rural living and tradition. 
Kauffman’s place as a woman also figures strongly into her writing as it highlights women and makes strong statements about their role in society.

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