Charles Anthony D'Ambrosio, Jr (born 1958) is an American

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 and essayist.

Life

The son of Charles D'Ambrosio, Sr (1932-2011), a professor of finance at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

, D'Ambrosio grew up with two brothers and four sisters in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

. He attended Oberlin College and graduated from 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 ...

, where he is currently on faculty. Previously, D'Ambrosio was on the faculty of Portland State University's MFA Program in Creative Writing, and has also been a visiting instructor at the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. In 2005 he married writer and musician Heather Larimer; the two divorced in 2008. D'Ambrosio is the author of two collections of short stories, '' The Point'' (1995) and '' The Dead Fish Museum'' (2006). He has also published a collection of essays ''Orphans'' (2005). His writings have appeared in ''

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 ...

'', ''

The Stranger (newspaper) ''The Stranger'' is an alternative biweekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, U.S. The paper's principal competitor is ''The Seattle Weekly'', owned by Sound Publishing, Inc. History ''The Stranger'' was founded in July 1991 by Tim Keck, who ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', '' Zoetrope All-Story'', and ''

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 ...

''. His newest book, ''Loitering'' is a collection of essays from Tin House Books.

Little Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

published D'Ambrosio's first short story collection, ''The Point'' in 1995. The collection was a finalist for the

Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award The PEN/Hemingway Award is awarded annually to a full-length novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a full-length book of fiction. The award is named after Ernest Hemingway and funded by the Hemingwa ...

and was a ''

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 ...

'' Notable Book of the Year. ''Orphans'', a collection of essays, was published in 2005 by

Clear Cut Press Clear Cut Press was a small press based in Astoria, Oregon. About Clear Cut Press was founded by novelist Matthew Stadler and Up Records co-founder Rich Jensen in 2002. Jensen began talking to Stadler while taking a poetry class in 1997. The ...

. The book, which gained something of a cult status, sold out of its small-print run and was never reprinted. Ten years after his first collection, ''The Point'',

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

published his second book of fiction, ''The Dead Fish Museum''. Six of the eight stories in the collection were originally published in ''The New Yorker''. The book was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. In October 2006, D'Ambrosio was awarded the prestigious Whiting Award. Among other honors, he has received an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a

Lannan Foundation The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...

Fellowship, and is presently a USA Rasmuson Fellow. The Rasmuson Fellowship earned him a $50,000 grant from

United States Artists United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards. Mission The organization' ...

, a relatively new organization that supports and promotes the work of American artists in a variety of disciplines. ''The Dead Fish Museum'' won the 2007

Washington State Book Award The Washington State Book Awards is a literary awards program presented annually in recognition of notable books written by Washington authors in the previous year. The program was established in 1967 as the Governor's Writers Awards. Each year, ...

for Fiction.

Works

Short story collections

*'' The Point'' (1995) **''The Point'', originally published in ''The New Yorker'', 1990-10-01. **''Her Real Name'', originally published in ''The Barcelona Review'', Spring 1993. **''American Bullfrog'' **''Jacinta'', originally published in ''Story'' **''All Aboard'', originally published in ''The Cimarron Review'' **''Lyricism'', originally published in ''Story'' (as ''A Christmas Carol'') **''Open House'', originally published in ''The Paris Review'', Winter 1994. *'' The Dead Fish Museum'' (2006) **''The High Divide'', originally published in ''The New Yorker'', 2003-02-03. **''Drummond & Son'', originally published in ''The New Yorker'', 2002-10-07. **''Screenwriter'', originally published in ''The New Yorker'', 2003-12-08. **''Up North'', originally published in ''The New Yorker'', 2005-02-14. **''The Scheme of Things'', originally published in ''The New Yorker'', 2004-10-11. **''The Dead Fish Museum'', originally published in ''A Public Space'', Spring 2005. **''Blessing'', originally published in ''Zoetrope: All-Story'', Winter 2005. **''The Bone Game'', originally published in ''The New Yorker'', 2006-03-06.

Essay collections

*''Orphans'' (2005) **''Documents,'' originally published in ''The New Yorker'', 2002-06-17. *''Loitering'' (2014)

Uncollected short stories and essays

*''The Allegorical Tourist: Jonathan Raban Straddles a Sea and Its Meanings'', published in '' The Stranger'', 1999-12-09. *''Train in Vain'', published in ''The New Yorker'', 2004-06-14. *''Summer of '42'', published in ''The New Yorker'', 2007-06-11.

Reviews

...in the last few years, writers in this book review have lamented the decline of slice-of-life realism, pronouncing it dead at least once. But pronouncing things dead is the job of critics, and the truth is that understated realism remains a robust tradition, as evidenced by the work of, among others, Charles D'Ambrosio, whose stories frequently appear in The New Yorker. Eleven years after the publication of his first book, "The Point," and one year after his book of essays, "Orphans," along comes "The Dead Fish Museum," which largely traverses the same Carveresque territory staked out in his debut: the charged relationships between fathers and sons, drifters and workers, in the outskirts of the American Northwest.

References

External links

Profile at The Whiting FoundationAudio reading of "Screenwriter"

Narrative Magazine ''Narrative'' is an online magazine and website that is dedicated to advancing the literary arts in the digital age and publishes fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and art. It was founded in 2003. History and profile Founded in 2003, the l ...

(Spring 2009).
Interview at Powells.com
Accessed 3 July 2006.
Excerpt from "The Dead Fish Museum

, April, 2006.
Rasmuson 2007 FellowsUnited States Artists arts advocacy organization.
with D'Ambrosio from The Quarterly Conversation.
"Tribute to Philip Roth", ID 204924-1, C-SPANFiction Writers Review Stories We Love: "The Point" by Charles D'Ambrosio
{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Ambrosio, Charles 1968 births Living people American essayists American short story writers Oberlin College alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Writers from Portland, Oregon Place of birth missing (living people) PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners