Antoine Wilson (born 1971) is a Canadian-American novelist and

short story writer A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

. He was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, and later lived in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

Central California Central California is generally thought of as the middle third of the state, north of Southern California, which includes Los Angeles, and south of Northern California, which includes San Francisco. It includes the northern portion of the San J ...

, and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. He attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...

. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he is a contributing editor of the Brooklyn-based literary magazine ''

A Public Space ''A Public Space'' is a nonprofit triquarterly English-language literary magazine based in Brooklyn, New York. First published in April 2006, ''A Public Space'' publishes fiction, poetry, essays and art. The magazine's Focus portfolios have exam ...

''.

Career

His debut novel ''The Interloper'', published by

Other Press Other Press is an independent publisher of literary fiction and nonfiction, based in New York City. Founded in 1998 to publish academic and psychoanalytic titles, Other Press has since expanded to publish novels, short stories, nonfiction, poetr ...

in 2007, grapples with themes of family, crime, and revenge through the lens of an unreliable narrator. Wilson has said that the novel was partly inspired by the murder of his older brother when Wilson was seven years old. ''The Interloper'' was a finalist for the ''Foreword'' Book of the Year and was named a Book of the Decade by ''

The L Magazine ''The L Magazine'' was a free bi-weekly magazine in New York City featuring investigative articles, arts and culture commentary, and event listings. It was available through distribution in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Hoboken. History ''Th ...

''. His second novel, ''Panorama City'', was published by

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Financial Dist ...

in 2012. It spent seven weeks on the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' Bestseller list and was widely reviewed. In ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', Adam Ross noted a shift in Wilson's focus: "If ''The Interloper'' was about lighting the way to hell, to paraphrase Milton, here the author's gaze is directed heavenward, toward sanity and the good in all of us. ''Panorama City'' is about our struggle to remain open to one another in a world that categorizes and closes us off at every turn." In Germany, ''Panorama City'' was released as ''Ein Mann Von Welt''. Wilson's short fiction has appeared in ''

'', ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'', ''

Storyquarterly ''StoryQuarterly'' is an American literary journal based at Rutgers University–Camden in Camden, New Jersey. It was founded in 1975 by Tom Bracken, F.R. Katz, Pamela Painter and Thalia Selz. Works originally published in ''StoryQuarterly'' ha ...

'', ''

Quarterly West ''Quarterly West'' is an American literary magazine based at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Stories that have appeared in ''Quarterly West'' have been shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Short Stories and the O. Henr ...

'', and the ''

'', as well as ''Best New American Voices 2001''. His stories have received Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize XXX and XXXVII. In 2022, Wilson appeared on

Storybound (podcast) ''Storybound'' is a podcast created, produced, and hosted by Jude Brewer, with original music composed for each episode. The show is a collaboration between ''Lit Hub'' and The Podglomerate podcast network, featuring household names and Pulitze ...

reading an excerpt from ''Mouth to Mouth''.

Awards

In 2001, he was awarded the Carol Houck Smith Fiction Fellowship at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Institute for Creative Writing. In 2005, he was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction. ''Panorama City'' was named a Best Book of 2012 by The ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' and an editors' choice by ''The New York Times Book Review''. ''Panorama City'' was a finalist for the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award in 2013. In 2017, ''Panorama City'' won the inaugural San Fernando Valley Award for Fiction from the Friends of the Library at

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

. ''Mouth to Mouth'' was longlisted for the 2022

Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...

."14 Canadian authors longlisted for $100K Scotiabank Giller Prize"

CBC Books CBC Arts (french: Radio-Canada Arts) is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that creates and curates written articles, short documentaries, non-fiction series and interactive projects that represent the excellence of Canada's div ...

, September 6, 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Antoine Canadian expatriate writers in the United States American male novelists 1971 births Living people American male short story writers Canadian male novelists Canadian male short story writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Canadian male writers