Jim Dodge

Infobox Writer


imagesize = 150px
name = Jim Dodge
caption =
birthdate = birth year and age|1945
birthplace = Santa Rosa, California, United States
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = novelist, poet
nationality = American
period = 1983–present
genre = American literature
movement =
notableworks =
influences =
influenced =
website =

Jim Dodge (born 1945) is an American novelist and poet whose works combine themes of folklore and fantasy, set in a timeless present. He has published three novels, "Fup", "Not Fade Away" and "Stone Junction" and a collection of poetry and prose, "Rain on the River".

Biography

Dodge was born in 1945 and grew up as an Air Force brat.cite web
last =Wild
first =Peter
title =What the Fup? Jim Dodge interviewed
publisher =bookmunch.co.uk
date =2003-01-17
url =http://bookmunch.co.uk/view.php?id=825
accessdate =2007-11-22 ] As an adult he spent many years living on an almost self-sufficient commune in West Sonoma County, California. He has had many jobs including apple picker, a carpet layer, a teacher, a professional gambler, a shepherd, a woodcutter and an environmental restorer. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing/Poetry from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in 1969.cite web
title =Jim Dodge
publisher =writersontheedge.org
date =2002-10-19
url =http://www.writersontheedge.org/dodge.html
accessdate =2007-11-22 ] He has been the director of the Creative Writing program in the English Department at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California since 1995. He lives in the Klamath Mountains with his wife and son.

Some of Dodge's nonfiction essays focus on bioregionalism. [cite book
last = Thomashow
first = Mitchell
authorlink = Mitchell Thomashow
title = Ecological Identity: Becoming a Reflective Environmentalist
publisher = MIT Press
date = 1996
pages = 60
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=2YG41VEiGZoC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&d
isbn =0262700638 ] [cite book
last = Direk
first = Zeynep
coauthors = Leonard Lawlor
title = Environmentalism
publisher = Routledge
date = 2002
pages = 211
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=zwzOs_IHCYQC&pg=PA211&lpg=PA211&d
isbn =0415206227 ]

Books

"Fup" (1983)

A story about a duck, named Fup, who lives on a farm with an old man who believes he is immortal due to the homemade whiskey he drinks. The recipe for the whiskey, also known as "Old Death Whisper", was bestowed upon him by a dying Indian. The book ends with a scene where Fup is accidentally shot to pieces but reemerges from the belly of a now-also-dead wild boar, and flies off into the white light.

"Not Fade Away" (1987)

Floorboard George Gastin is part of an insurance scam to wreck a pure white, mint condition '59 Cadillac originally intended as a gift for The Big Bopper as a token of an admirer's love. Floorboard George has other ideas and when he disappears with the car, gangsters and cops are soon in hot pursuit. On the road he meets crazy characters, hitch-hikers and demented preachers as he covers many miles—and states of mind—in his quest to find the true spirit of rock 'n' roll.

"Stone Junction" (1990)

This is the story of the boy Daniel Pearse's journey from childhood to adulthood amid magic, mayhem and mysticism all guided by a mysterious organization named AMO, the Alliance of Magicians and Outlaws. A series of apprenticeships teaches Daniel meditation, safe cracking, poker and the art of becoming invisible.

"Rain on the River" (2002)

"Rain on the River" is a volume of selected poems and prose from 1970–2001 published in 2002 by Grove Press. [cite web
title =Rain on the River: New and Selected Poems and Short Prose (Paperback)
publisher =Amazon.com
url =http://www.amazon.com/Rain-River-Selected-Poems-Short/dp/0802138969/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195767697&sr=8-6
accessdate =2007-11-22 ]

Essays

* "Living By Life: Some Bioregional Theory and Practice". "CoEvolution Quarterly, Winter 1981, pp. 6-12. [http://www.class.uidaho.edu/envphilsummer/readings/Wk%2012%20Bioregionalism/dodge.pdf (pdf version)]
* "Routes" in Peter Berg, ed. "Reinhabiting a Separate Country: A Bioregional Anthology of Northern California". 1978. Planet Drum Foundation, San Francisco.

References