Tom Perrotta

Infobox Writer
name = Tom Perrotta

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caption = Tom Perrotta in 2007
birthdate = birth date and age|1961|8|13
birthplace = Garwood, New Jersey
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = novelist, screenwriter
nationality = American
genre =
influences = Raymond Carver, Willa Cather, Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, Tobias Wolff [http://www.postroadmag.com/10/etcetera/20QuestionsPerrotta.phtml "Twenty Questions with Tom Perrotta"] , Post Road Mag, 2003. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.]
influenced =
website = http://www.tomperrotta.net

Thomas R. Perrotta (born August 13, 1961) is an American novelist and screenwriter best known for his novels "Election" (1998) and "Little Children" (2004), both of which were made into critically acclaimed, Golden Globe-nominated films. Perrotta co-wrote the screenplay for the 2006 film version of "Little Children" with Todd Field, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Biography

Perrotta was born in Garwood, New Jersey, the son of a postman and a secretary,Shanahan, Mark. [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/10/18/adaptation/ "Adaptation: Tom Perrotta is growing accustomed to seeing his books on the big screen"] , The Boston Globe, 2006-10-18. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.] and was raised Roman Catholic.Rich, Motoko. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/books/14rich.html "A Writer's Search for the Sex in Abstinence"] , The New York Times, 2007-10-14. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.] Perrotta grew up a voracious reader of authors such as O. Henry, J. R. R. Tolkien, and John Irving, and decided early in his life that he wanted to be a writer. He was involved in his high school literary magazine, "Pariah", for which he wrote several short stories.Schwartz, Missy. [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20152501,00.html "The Q&A: Tom Perrotta: His Novel Take on Suburban Life"] , Entertainment Weekly, 2007-10-15. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.] Perrotta earned a B.A. in English from Yale University in 1983, and then received an M.A. in English/Creative Writing from Syracuse University. While at Syracuse, Perrotta was a pupil of Tobias Wolff, whom Perrotta later praised for his "comic writing and moral seriousness."Bancroft, Colette. [http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/14/Features/From_page_to_screen.shtml "From page to screen"] , St. Petersburg Times, 2007-01-14.]

Perrotta married the writer Mary Granfield in 1991. [ [http://www.tomperrotta.net/content.php?page=about&n=1&f=2 "About Tom Perrotta"] , Official Web Site. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.] They live with their two children, Nina (b. 1994) and Luke (b. 1997), in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Career

While teaching Creative Writing at Yale, Perrotta completed three novels that he had trouble getting published. One was "Election", the story of an intense high-school election inspired by the three-candidate 1992 United States presidential race, and another was "Lucky Winners", which remains unpublished as of 2007 and which Perrotta described in 2004 as "a pretty good novel about a family that falls apart after winning the lottery." [http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=881758 "Meet the Writers: Tom Perrotta"] , Barnesandnoble.com, 2004.] In 1994, Perrotta published his first book, a collection of short stories titled "Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies" which "The Washington Post" called "more powerful than any other coming-of-age novel." The same year, Perrotta left Yale and began teaching expository writing at Harvard University. In 1997 he published "The Wishbones", his first novel, which Perrotta has said is basically "about my high school years."Alexander, Kevin. "Suburban Observer" (interview with Perrotta), Writer's Digest, Dec. 2007.] The unpublished manuscript of "Election" was optioned as a screenplay in 1996 by director Alexander Payne, which then led to interest in publishing it as a book. It arrived in bookstores in March 1998, followed shortly by its film adaptation, which was released in April 1999 to critical acclaim. The film, which starred Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon, helped popularize Perrotta as an author.

Following "Election", Perrotta shifted his focus to an older—though just as troubled—cast of characters: first with 2000's "Joe College", a comic journey into the dark side of higher education, love, and food service (which the author says is about his college years); and then with 2004's "Little Children", which explored the psychological and romantic depths beneath the surface of suburbia.

"Little Children" was Perrotta's "breakout book," featured on numerous "Best Books of 2004" lists—including those of "The New York Times Book Review", "Newsweek", National Public Radio, and "People" magazine—and garnering tremendous praise for Perrotta. "The New York Times" dubbed him "an American Chekhov whose characters even at their most ridiculous seem blessed and ennobled by a luminous human aura," [Blythe, Will. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3D8133FF937A25750C0A9629C8B63 "All the Children Are Above Average"] , The New York Times, 2004-03-14. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.] and "People" called him "the rare writer equally gifted at drawing people's emotional maps...and creating sidesplitting scenes." [ [http://www.tomperrotta.net/content.php?page=election&n=2&f=2 "Books & Writing: Election"] , Official Web Site. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.] For his part, Perrotta describes himself as a writer in the "plain-language American tradition" of authors such as Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver.

In 2006, Perrotta sold New Line Cinema an original screenplay he co-wrote with "Frasier" producer Rob Greenberg. Titled "Barry and Stan Gone Wild", the screenplay is "a shameless comedy [about] a 40-something dermatologist who goes on spring break." In January 2007, Perrotta was on the guest faculty for the third annual Writers in Paradise conference at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Perrotta was invited to teach at Eckerd College by Dennis Lehane; the two writers had previously taught together at Stonecoast Writers Conference in Maine.

Perrotta's latest novel, "The Abstinence Teacher", was published on October 16, 2007. It is, according to the author, "all about sex education and the culture wars. It's close in spirit to "Little Children", I think." It was chosen by the New York Times as a 2007 Notable Book of the Year. As of October 2007, he was working on a film adaptation of the book with "Little Miss Sunshine" directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.

Bibliography

Novels

*"The Wishbones" (1997)
*"Election" (1998)
*"Joe College" (2000)
*"Little Children" (2004)
*"The Abstinence Teacher" (2007)

hort stories

*"The Weiner Man" (1988)
*"Wild Kingdom" (1988)
*"Forgiveness" (1989-1994)
*"The Smile on Happy Chang's Face" (2004)
*"Kiddie Pool" (2006)

hort story collections

*"Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies" (1994)

Essays

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E4DE123EF934A35753C1A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&scp=2&sq=eat,%20memory%20perrotta&st=cse "The Squeamish American"] (2007)

References

External links

* [http://www.tomperrotta.net Official Web Site]
*imdb name|id=0674909|name=Tom Perrotta