- Christopher Klim
-
Christopher Klim 
Speaking at Princeton University StoreBorn September 8, 1962
Trenton, New JerseyOccupation novelist, journalist, teacher
Influences
christopherklim.comChristopher Klim (born September 8, 1962) is an American novelist, best known for the novels Jesus Lives in Trenton and The Winners Circle.
Contents
Life
Klim spent his formative years as a space program physicist working on long-range satellites, and became a journalist. His work has been compared to John Steinbeck,[1] Dashiell Hammett,[2] Raymond Chandler,[3] and Carl Hiaasen.[4] His first novel, Jesus Lives in Trenton, became "a cult favorite satire on religious fanaticism".[5] Klim said, "JLIT served as a litmus test, evoking people’s sense of God and religion by the title alone...".[6] Everything Burns is a fictionalized study of pyromania based partly on his experiences as a journalist. His novel The Winners Circle, a satire about the meaning of wealth in America, lead The Book Reporter to call him "among the top humor novelists of the day."[7] His work has been praised repeatedly in publications such as Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus.
In 2007, Klim became the executive editor of Best New Writing, which was said to "immediately become a treasured possession” by Walter Cronkite.[8] He is a speaker on a range of topics from society to the writing craft. He was the lead editor in restoring the works of the American writer Eric Hoffer to print[9] as well as editing American writer Robert Gover's later books. Klim is currently a professor of journalism at The College of New Jersey. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Association of Documentary Editors at the University of Virginia.
Works
- Jesus Lives in Trenton (novel)
- Write to Publish: Essentials for the Modern Fiction and Memoir Market (nonfiction)
- Everything Burns (novel)
- Firecracker Jones is on the Case (juvenile fiction)
- The Winners Circle (novel)
- Idiot! (novel)
- True Surrealism (stories)
Eric Hoffer Award
Klim chairs the Eric Hoffer Award for books and short prose.[10] This award, from The Eric Hoffer Project,[11] honors the American writer Eric Hoffer by "highlighting salient writing, as well as the independent spirit of small publishers." The winning stories and essays appear in Best New Writing,[12] and the book awards are covered in the US Review of Books,[13] both produced by Hopewell Publications.[14] The "Hoffer" honored prose is largely unpublished and the books are chiefly from small, academic, and micro presses, including self-published offerings.
References
- ^ Robert Gover, quoted on original hardcover (Creative Arts Books 2002) from article "Old Times, Modern Writers", December 2001 by Gover
- ^ Philadelphia Weekly, July 10, 2002 article by Katie Haegele
- ^ Kirkus, 2006[vague]
- ^ Trenton Times, June 2003 by Brad Grois
- ^ Booklist, February 12, 2004
- ^ The Compulsive Reader interview with Christopher Klim 2004
- ^ The Book Reporter, http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/193343502X.asp
- ^ Cronkite's commentary on premiere issue of Best New Writing, Best New Writing 2008.
- ^ Klim is editor of note on eight Hoffer reprints, including The Ordeal of Change, Truth Imagined, and The Passionate State of Mind.
- ^ Hopewell Publications biography of Klim
- ^ Hofferproject.org
- ^ [1], bestnewwriting.com.
- ^ [2], www.theUSreview.com.
- ^ [3], www.hopepubs.com.
External links
Categories:- 1962 births
- Living people
- American novelists
- The College of New Jersey faculty
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