T Coraghessan Boyle

T. Coraghessan Boyle was our guest author on Saturday, April 3, 2004.

T. Coraghessan Boyle is the author of fifteen books of fiction, including, the recently published Drop City which has been nominated as a finalist for the 2003 National Book Award for fiction.

He received a Ph.D. degree in 19th Century British Literature from the University of Iowa in 1977, his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974, and his B.A. in English and History from SUNY Potsdam in 1968. He has been a member of the English Department at the University of Southern California since 1978. His books have been translated into German, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, Danish, Swedish and Lithuanian. Boyle's stories have appeared in most of the major American magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, The Paris Review, GQ, Antaeus and Granta, and he has been the recipient of a number of literary awards. He currently lives near Santa Barbara with his wife and three children.

1. Books

• Descent of Man. Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1979.
• Water Music. Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1982.
• Budding Prospects. New York: Viking, 1984.
• Greasy Lake. New York: Viking, 1985.
• World's End. New York: Viking, 1987.
• If the River Was Whiskey. New York: Viking, 1989.
• East Is East. New York: Viking, 1990.
• The Road to Wellville. New York: Viking, 1993.
• Without A Hero. New York: Viking, 1994.
• The Tortilla Curtain. New York: Viking, 1995.
• Riven Rock. New York: Viking, 1998.
• T.C. Boyle Stories. New York: Viking, 1998.
• A Friend of the Earth. New York: Viking, 2000.
• After the Plague. New York: Viking, 2001.
• Drop City. New York: Viking, 2003.

2. Awards and Honors

• Southern California Booksellers' Association Award for best fiction title of the year, 2002, for After the Plague.
• O.Henry Award, 2001. "The Love of My Life."
• The Bernard Malamud Prize in Short Fiction from the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, 1999, for T.C. Boyle Stories, the Collected Stories.
• O.Henry Award, 1999, ("The Underground Gardens," from The New Yorker).
• Prix Médicis Étranger, Paris, for the best foreign novel of the year, 1997 (The Tortilla Curtain).
• Best American Stories selection, 1997 ("Killing Babies," from The New Yorker.)
• Howard D. Vursell Memorial Award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters, for prose excellence, 1993.
• Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree, State University of New York, 1991.
• Editors' Choice, New York Times Book Review, one of the 13 best books of the year, 1989 (If the River Was Whiskey).
• PEN Center West Literary Prize, best short story collection of the year, 1989 (If the River Was Whiskey).
• Prix Passion publishers' prize, France, for best novel of the year, 1989 (Water Music).
• Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal for Literature, best novel of the year, 57th annual awards, 1988 (World's End).
• O.Henry Awards, 1989 and 1988 ("The Ape Lady in Retirement," from The Paris Review, and "Sinking House," from The Atlantic Monthly).
• PEN/Faulkner Award, best novel of the year, 1988, for World's End.
• Guggenheim Fellowship, 1988.
• Editors' Choice, New York Times Book Review, one of the 16 best books of of the year, 1987 (World's End).
• Commonwealth of California, Silver Medal for Literature, 55th Annual Awards, 1986 (Greasy Lake).
• The Paris Review's John Train Humor Prize, 1984 ("The Hector Quesadilla Story").
• National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, 1983.
• The Paris Review's Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, 1981 ("Mungo Among the Moors," excerpt from Water Music).
• The St. Lawrence Award for Fiction, best story collection of the year, 1980 (Descent of Man).
• National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, 1977.
• Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines Fiction Award for the Short Story, 1977.