Frank Conroy (author)

Frank Conroy (January 15, 1936 – April 6, 2005) was an American author. He published five books, including the highly acclaimed memoir ''Stop-Time''. Published in 1967, this ultimately made Conroy a noted figure in the literary world. The book was nominated for the National Book Award.

Early life and education

Frank Conroy was born on January 15, 1936, in New York, New York, to an American father and a Danish mother. Conroy graduated from Haverford College, and was director of the influential Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa for 18 years, from 1987 until 2005, where he was also F. Wendell Miller Professor. He was previously the director of the literature program at the National Endowment for the Arts from 1982 to 1987.

Writing

Conroy's published works include the memoir ''Stop-Time'' (1967); a collection of short stories, ''Midair'' (1985); a novel, ''Body and Soul'' (1993), which is regarded as one of the finest evocations of the experience of being a musician; a collection of essays and commentaries, ''Dogs Bark, but the Caravan Rolls On: Observations Then and Now'' (2002); and a travelogue, ''Time and Tide: A Walk Through Nantucket'' (2004). His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in such journals as ''The New Yorker'', '' Esquire'', '' GQ'', '' Harper's Magazine'', Glamour, Parenting, and ''Partisan Review''. He was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.

Jazz piano

In addition to writing, Conroy was an accomplished jazz pianist, winning a Grammy Award in 1986 for liner notes. His book ''Dogs Bark, But the Caravan Rolls On: Observations Then and Now'' includes articles that describe jamming with Charles Mingus and with Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman. The latter session occurred when Conroy was writing about the Rolling Stones for ''Esquire''. Conroy had arrived at a mansion for the interview, found nobody there, and eventually sat down at a grand piano and began to play. Someone wandered in, sat down at the drums, and joined in with accomplished jazz drumming; then a fine jazz bassist joined in. They turned out to be Watts and Wyman, whom Conroy did not recognize until they introduced themselves after the session.

Death and recognition

Conroy died of colon cancer on April 6, 2005, in Iowa City, Iowa, at the age of 69. The Frank Conroy Reading Room in the Dey House, the home of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, was named in his honor.

Conroy is the subject of ''Mentor: A Memoir'' by Tom Grimes, his former student at the Iowa Writers Workshop and longtime friend.

External links

*

Identity Theory interview with Frank Conroy
* Lacy Crawford (Fall 2004)
A Final Conversation
with Frank Conroy, ''Narrative Magazine''.

Two Frank Conroy manuscripts
are housed at the University of Iowa Special Collections & University Archives.

1994 Whiting Writers' Award Keynote Speech

Tom Grimes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conroy, Frank
1936 births
2005 deaths
Deaths from colorectal cancer
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American memoirists
University of Iowa faculty
American travel writers
Haverford College alumni
Grammy Award winners
American people of Danish descent
Deaths from cancer in Iowa
Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty
Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
American male novelists
American male essayists
American male short story writers
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American essayists
20th-century American male writers
Novelists from Iowa