Andrew Sean Greer (born November 1970) is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

and

short story 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 ...

writer. Greer received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel ''

Less Less or LESS may refer to: fewer than,: not as much. Computing * less (Unix), a Unix utility program * Less (stylesheet language), a dynamic stylesheet language * Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), a product development framework that extends Scrum Othe ...

''. He is the author of ''The Story of a Marriage'', which ''The New York Times'' has called an “inspired, lyrical novel,” and ''The Confessions of Max Tivoli'', which was named one of the best books of 2004 by the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' and received a California Book Award.

Biography

Andrew Sean Greer was born in November 1970, in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, the child of two scientists. He grew up in Rockville, Maryland. He is an identical twin. He graduated from

Georgetown Day School Georgetown Day School (GDS) is an independent coeducational PK-12 school located in Washington, D.C. The school educates 1,075 elementary, middle, and high school students in northwestern Washington, D.C. Russell Shaw is the current Head of Sc ...

, and Brown University, where he studied with

Robert Coover Robert Lowell Coover (born February 4, 1932) is an American novelist, short story writer, and T.B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction. Background ...

and

Edmund White Edmund Valentine White III (born 1940) is an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer and an essayist on literary and social topics. Since 1999 he has been a professor at Princeton University. France made him (and later ) de l'Ordr ...

, and served as commencement speaker. He lives part-time in Italy. He is the author of six works of fiction. Greer taught at

Freie Universität Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

and the

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 Wr ...

. He was a finalist for the Premio von Rezzori for a work translated into Italian, as well as a

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...

pick, a New York Public Library Cullman Center Fellow, and NEA Fellow, and a judge for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

Work

His stories have appeared in '' Esquire'', ''

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, Phil ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and other national publications, and have been anthologized most recently in '' The Book of Other People'', and '' The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2009''. His third book, ''The Confessions of Max Tivoli'', was released in 2004; a ''New Yorker'' piece by John Updike called it “enchanting, in the perfumed, dandified style of disenchantment brought to grandeur by Proust and Nabokov.”

Mitch Albom Mitchell David Albom (born May 23, 1958) is an American author, journalist, and musician. His books have sold over 40 million copies worldwide. Having achieved national recognition for sports writing in his early career, he turned to writing the ...

then chose ''The Confessions of Max Tivoli'' for the ''Today Show'' Book Club and it soon became a bestseller. The story of a man aging backwards, it was inspired by the Bob Dylan song "My Back Pages." It is similar in theme to the Fitzgerald

and the film ''The Curious Case of Benjamin Button''. Greer's fourth book ''The Story of a Marriage'' was published in 2008. ''The New York Times'' said of it: "Mr. Greer seamlessly choreographs an intricate narrative that speaks authentically to the longings and desires of his characters. All the while he never strays from the convincing and steady voice of Pearlie." ''The Washington Post'' called it "thoughtful, complex and exquisitely written." ''The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells'' was published in June 2013. His novel ''

'' was published in 2017 and received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. A follow up, ''Less is Lost'', was published in 2022 and debuted on ''The New York Times'' Best Sellers list.

Awards and prizes

* Northern California Book Award * California Book Award * New York Public Library

Young Lions Fiction Award The Young Lions Fiction Award is an annual US literary prize of $10,000, awarded to a writer who is 35 years old or younger for a novel or collection of short stories. The award was established in 2001 by Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Rick ...

* Fellowships from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

and the New York Public Library. *

O. Henry Award The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...

for the short story, "Darkness". * Fernanda Pivano Award 2014 for American Literature in Italy. * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2018 for his novel ''Less.'' * PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award 2018 for ''Less''.

Bibliography

Novels

*''The Path of Minor Planets: A Novel'' (2001) * ''The Confessions of Max Tivoli'' (2004) * ''The Story of a Marriage'' (2008) * ''The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells'' (2013) * '' Less: A Novel'' (2017) * ''Less Is Lost'' (2022) ISBN 9780316498906

Short fiction

;Collections * ''How It Was for Me'' (short stories) (2000) ;StoriesShort stories unless otherwise noted.

References

External links

Andrew Sean Greer website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greer, Andrew Sean 1970 births Living people 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers American male novelists American male short story writers Brown University alumni American gay writers Identical twins American LGBT novelists Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners The New Yorker people American twins University of Montana alumni Writers from California Writers from Washington, D.C. Georgetown Day School alumni 21st-century LGBT people