- Allan Gurganus
Infobox Writer
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name = Allan Gurganus
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birthdate = Birth date and age|1947|6|11
birthplace = Rocky Mount,North Carolina
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occupation = Novelist
nationality = American
period = 1989-present
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website =Allan Gurganus is an American
novel ist,short story writer, andessay ist whose work is often influenced by and set in his nativeNorth Carolina . His writing has been compared to the work ofWilliam Faulkner andEudora Welty , who also were identified with the American South.He was born in Rocky Mount,
North Carolina . He first trained as a painter, studying at theUniversity of Pennsylvania and thePennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts . He served three years with theUnited States Navy during theVietnam War and began writing during this time. He graduated fromSarah Lawrence College where he studied withGrace Paley . He studied withJohn Cheever andStanley Elkin at theIowa Writers' Workshop . In addition to later teaching at both Sarah Lawrence and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he also taught at Stanford and Duke Universities.His best known work is his 1989 debut novel, "
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All ", which was on theNew York Times Best Seller list for eight months. It won the Sue Kaufman Prize fromThe American Academy of Arts and Letters , was a main selection of theBook-of-the-Month Club , and sold over four million copies. It was made into aCBS television play, withCicely Tyson winning one of its fourEmmy Award s as best supporting actress in the role of the freed slave Castalia. The novel was also adapted for a one-woman Broadway play, starringEllen Burstyn , in 2003.Gurganus's other works include "White People", a collection of short stories and novellas; "
Plays Well With Others ", a novel; and "The Practical Heart ", a collection of four novellas, which won a 2001Lambda Literary Award in the Gay Men's Fiction category. His shorter fiction has been published in "The New Yorker ", "The Atlantic Monthly ", and "The Paris Review ", in addition to being included in the "O. Henry Prize Collection" and the "Norton Anthology of Short Fiction".After living in
New York City for a number of years, Gurganus returned to North Carolina, where he co-founded the political group Writers AgainstJesse Helms and, as a result, appeared as himself inTim Kirkman 's 1998 documentary "Dear Jesse ". Gurganus has also taken a position against theIraq War , most notably by citing his Vietnam War experience in a New York Times Magazine essay, "The War at Home" [http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/06/magazine/06WAR.html] [http://www.allangurganus.com/essay.php?doc=essay3&title=New+York+Times+Magazine] , publishedApril 6 ,2003 , a few weeks after the invasion. Gurganus was also the inaugural guest editor of "New Stories From the South", an annual collection of notable fiction by Southern writers published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, in 2006. [http://www.algonquin.com/products/9781565125315/]Works
* "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" (1984)
* "White People" (1991)
* "The Practical Heart" (1993 [limited edition] , 2001 [trade edition] )
* "Plays Well With Others" (1997)External links
* [http://www.allangurganus.com/ Allan Gurganus's website]
*WiredForBooks|americanbookawards86/allangurganus|1989 Real Audio interview with Allan Gurganus|byDon Swaim
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