- Peter Cameron (writer)
Peter Cameron (born
29 November 1959 inPompton Plains, New Jersey ) is an Americannovelist andwriter living inNew York, NY . He is best known for his novels "Andorra", "The Weekend" and "The City of Your Final Destination".Biography
Cameron grew up in Pompton Plains, New Jersey, and in
London, England . He spent two years attending the progressiveAmerican School in London , where he discovered the joys of reading, and began writing stories, poems, and plays. Cameron graduated fromHamilton College in New York State in 1982 with a B.A. inEnglish literature .He sold his first short story to "
The New Yorker " in 1983, and published ten more stories in that magazine during the next few years. This exposure facilitated the publication of his first book, a collection of stories titled "One Way or Another," published byHarper & Row in 1986. "One Way or Another" was awarded a special citation by thePEN/Hemingway Award for First Book of Fiction. In 1988, Cameron was hired byAdam Moss to write a serial novel for the just-launched magazine, "7 Days." This serial, which was written and published a chapter a week, became "Leap Year," a comic novel of life and love in New York City in the twilight of the 1980s. It was published in 1989 byHarper & Row , which also published a second collection of stories, "Far-flung," in 1991.Beginning in 1990, Cameron stopped writing short fiction and turned his attention toward novels. His second novel, "The Weekend," was published in 1994 by
Farrar, Straus & Giroux , which also published a third novel, "Andorra," in 1997, and a fourth, "The City of Your Final Destination," in May 2002. His work has been translated into a dozen languages.A film version of "The Weekend," written and directed by
Brian Skeet and starringGena Rowlands andBrooke Shields , was released in 2000.Ovie Entertainment has optioned the film rights to "Andorra" and plans to produce a film with a screenplay written by Cameron;Merchant Ivory Productions is preparing a film version of "The City of Your Final Destination," to be directed by James Ivory from a screenplay written byRuth Prawer Jhabvala .Cameron counts among his strongest influences the novels of British women writers such as
Rose Macaulay ,Barbara Pym ,Penelope Mortimer , and Elizabeth Taylor. He admires these writers for their elegant and accomplished use of language and their penetrating and sensitive exploration of personal life. He also admires the writing of the late William Maxwell for its natural elegance and deeply felt humanity.Shirley Hazzard ,James Salter , andDenton Welch are also revered.Fact|date=March 2007After arriving in New York City in 1982, Cameron worked for a year in the subsidiary rights department of St. Martin’s Press. Upon realizing he did not want to pursue a career in publishing, he began doing administrative work for non-profit organizations. From 1983 to 1988, he worked for
the Trust for Public Land , a land-conservation organization, and from 1990 to 1998 he worked for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a legal organization that protects and extends thecivil rights ofgay men,lesbian s, and people withHIV/AIDS . In 1987 he taught writing atOberlin College inOberlin, Ohio , and from 1990–1996 he taught in the MFA program atColumbia University 's Graduate School of the Arts. From 1998 to 2005 he taught inSarah Lawrence College ’s MFA program. He taught atYale University in the fall of 2005.In March 2005 his first play, "A Thing of the Past," was read at
Lincoln Center Theater by a cast includingMarian Seldes andEstelle Parsons . A new novel, "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You", was published byFarrar, Straus & Giroux in September 2007.elect bibliography
Fiction
*"One Way or Another" (collection of short stories) (1986)
*"Leap Year" (novel) (1990)
*"Far-flung" (stories) (1991)
*"The Weekend" (novel) (1995)
*"The Half You Don't Know: Selected Stories" (1983-present)
*"Andorra" (novel) (1997)
*"The City of Your Final Destination" (2002)
*"Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You" (novel) (2007)External links
* [http://www.peter-cameron.com/ Peter Cameron's official web site]
*imdb name|id=0131702|name=Peter Cameron
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