- Bob Shacochis
Bob Shacochis (born
September 9 ,1951 ) is an Americannovelist , short story writer, and literary journalist.Writing career
Shacochis was born in
Pennsylvania , but grew up in theWashington, D.C. suburb ofMaclean ,Virginia . He was educated at the University of Missouri and theUniversity of Iowa Writer's Workshop. His first short-story collection, Easy in the Islands, received theNational Book Award for first fiction. The stories are set in variousCaribbean locales and reflect the author's experiences as aPeace Corps volunteer in theGrenadines . His second story collection, The Next New World, widens the author's milieu, containing stories set inFlorida and the islands of the Caribbean but also in Northern Virginia and the mid-Atlantic coast. In 1993, Shacochis published his first novel, Swimming in the Volcano, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Heavily concerned with politics, elaborate in style and description, and immersed in descriptions of nature and outdoor pursuits, his fiction reflects the influence ofJoseph Conrad ,Graham Greene ,J.P. Donleavy , and especiallyErnest Hemingway .Journalism
In the years since, Shacochis has worked primarily as a
journalist andwar correspondent . A longtime culinary aficionado, Shacochis served as a cooking columnist for GQ magazine, writing the 'Dining In' column, which combined often humorous anecdotes with recipes. The 'Dining In' columns are collected in Domesticity, a hybrid cookbook/essay collection. He is a contributing editor atOutside Magazine , and was instrumental, along with other literary journalists recruited by then-editorMark Bryant includingJon Krakauer ,Tim Cahill , andBruce Barcott , in establishing Outside's popular and critical success. Shacochis is also a contributing editor to Harper's, which sent him toHaiti in1994 to cover the uprising againstJean-Bertrand Aristide , the island nation's first democratically elected President, and the subsequent intervention byUS Army Special Forces , with whom Shacochis traveled for nearly a year covering the invasion. The experience resulted in 'The Immaculate Invasion', Shacochis' first full-length book of nonfiction. Shacochis' nonfiction generally fits into the tradition of theNew Journalism popularized byTom Wolfe ,Norman Mailer , andHunter S. Thompson in the 1960s and 1970s.Published works
Non fiction
* Drinking, Smoking and Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times (1994) ISBN 0-8118-0784-3
* Domesticity: A Gastronomic Interpretation of Love (1994) ISBN 0-684-19642-5
* The Immaculate Invasion (2000) ISBN 0-7475-4529-4
* Conversations with Cuba (2001) ISBN 0-8203-2302-0Fiction
* Easy in the Islands (1986) ISBN 0-8021-4059-9
* The Next New World (1990) ISBN 0-14-012105-6
* Swimming in the Volcano (1993) ISBN 0-684-19260-8References
* " [http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.whatispc.notable.artsandlit Notable Former Volunteers / Arts and Literature] ". Peace Corps official site. Accessed
5 January 2007 .External links
*
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