Charles Bock (born 1969) is an American writer whose debut 2008 novel '' Beautiful Children'' (published by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

) was selected by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as a Notable Book of the Year for 2008, and won the 2009

Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction The Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction is awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The $5,000 prize is given for the best published first novel or collection of short stories in the preceding year. It was established in 1979 in memory ...

from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He currently lives in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Biography

Bock was born and raised in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, which served as the setting for Beautiful Children. He comes from a family of pawnbrokers who've operated pawn shops in

Downtown Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas (commonly abbreviated as DTLV) is the central business district and historic center of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the original townsite, and the Downtown gaming area was the primary gambling district of Las Vegas prior to the St ...

for more than thirty years. On his website, he reflects upon his upbringing as a source of inspiration for the novel: Bock earned a Master's of Fine Arts in

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

from

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

and has taught fiction at the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City. Bock is a 2009 recipient of the Silver Pen Award (Nevada Writers Hall of Fame), which was established in 1996 to recognize mid-career writers who have already shown substantial achievement.

Personal life

In 2009, Bock's first wife, Diana Colbert, was diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

. The couple's daughter, Lily Starr, was six months old at the time. Following a pair of bone marrow transplants, Diana Colbert died in December 2011, three days before Lily Starr's third birthday. He subsequently married writer

Leslie Jamison Leslie Sierra Jamison (born June 21, 1983) is an American novelist and essayist. She is the author of the 2010 novel ''The Gin Closet'' and the 2014 essay collection ''The Empathy Exams.'' Jamison also directs the non-fiction concentration in wri ...

, with whom he has a daughter. They are no longer married, and share custody of their daughter.

Beautiful Children

Bock's first novel Beautiful Children is about the interwoven lives of several characters in Las Vegas. The story focuses on the issue of homeless teenage runaways. Young Newell has A.D.D. and his overbearing mother Lorraine is not too keen on him hanging out with his older friend Kenny. The Girl With the Shaved Head is looking to fit in with some questionable characters that she just met on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of ...

. Pony Boy has not always been the best boyfriend and lover to his stripper girlfriend Cheri. Comic book writer Bing Beiderbixxe is just in Vegas for the weekend. These characters' lives intersect in this unflinching tale about lost innocence.

Alice & Oliver

Bock's second novel, Alice & Oliver, is based on his late wife Diana Joy Colbert and her illness. The novel follows a character battling cancer.

References

External links

''What Happened in Vegas Stayed in His Novel'' - ''The New York Times'' Sunday Magazine, January 27, 2008

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080918212439/http://www.powells.com/review/2008_05_01.html "Depravity's Rainbow" - The New Republic
''Beautiful Children'' Book Review - Entertainment Weekly

* ttp://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/archive/2007/nov/12/my-vegas/ Interview with Bock published in ''Las Vegas Weekly'', November 1, 2007
''Esquires List of 100 hot things for 2008, mentions ''Beautiful Children''

BeautifulChildren.net Official website for ''Beautiful Children''
* ''Radio Interview with Charles Bock on "Read First, Ask Later" (Ep. 24)
/span>'' *Rake's Progress,

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

, 3/2013

*For Love or Money, Harper's Magazine, 6/201
Joint Ventures, Harper's Magazine, September 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bock, Charles 1969 births 21st-century American novelists Bennington College alumni Living people People from the Las Vegas Valley Novelists from New York (state) American male novelists 21st-century American male writers