James Wilcox (born April 4, 1949 in

Hammond, Louisiana Hammond is the largest city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States, located east of Baton Rouge and northwest of New Orleans. Its population was 20,019 in the 2010 U.S. census, and 21,359 at the 2020 population estimates program. Ham ...

) is an American novelist and a professor at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...

. James Wilcox worked at Random House and Doubleday in New York after graduating from

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

. Wilcox was a recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1986. Wilcox is the author of nine

comic novel A comic novel is a novel-length work of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, including P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, and John Kennedy Toole. Comic novels are often defined by the author's literary ...

s mostly set in, or featuring characters from, the fictional town of Tula Springs, Louisiana: * ''

Modern Baptists ''Modern Baptists'' is the debut novel by American author James Wilcox, and his best known work. It was published in 1983. Plot introduction Set in the fictional town of Tula Springs, Louisiana, the novel concerns middle-aged bachelor Bobby Pi ...

'' (1983) * ''North Gladiola'' (1985) * ''Miss Undine's Living Room'' (1987) * ''Sort of Rich'' (1989) * ''Polite Sex'' (1991) * ''Guest of a Sinner'' (1993) * ''Plain and Normal'' (1998) * ''Heavenly Days'' (2003) * ''Hunk City'' (2007) Wilcox's first book ''

'' remains his best known work. ''Guest of a Sinner'' is set in New York City with characters from

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

. ''Polite Sex'' and ''Plain and Normal'' are set mainly in New York City, but they do have a few characters who come from Tula Springs.Email from author July 28, 2011 Wilcox is also the author of three short stories that were published 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 ...

'' between 1981 and 1986. He was the subject of an article by

James B. Stewart James Bennett Stewart (born c. 1952) is an American lawyer, journalist, and author. Early life and education Stewart was born in Quincy, Illinois. He graduated from DePauw University and Harvard Law School. Career He is a member of the Bar o ...

in ''The New Yorker's'' 1994 summer fiction issue; entitled "Moby Dick in Manhattan", it detailed his struggle to survive as a writer devoted purely to

literary fiction Literary fiction, mainstream fiction, non-genre fiction or serious fiction is a label that, in the book trade, refers to market novels that do not fit neatly into an established genre (see genre fiction); or, otherwise, refers to novels that are ch ...

. Wilcox’s book reviews have appeared in ''The New York Times Book Review'', ''The Los Angeles Times Book Review'', and ''Elle''. He has been a judge 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 Hemingway ...

for the best first-published book of fiction by an American writer published in 1991; for the 1994 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award; for the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society novella contest in 1999; and for the Eudora Welty Prize for Fiction given by ''

The Southern Review ''The Southern Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established by Robert Penn Warren in 1935 at the behest of Charles W. Pipkin and funded by Huey Long as a part of his investment in Louisiana State University. It publishes fiction ...

'' in 2005. He was the recipient of an ATLAS grant for 2007-08. Wilcox was the recipient of the 2011 Louisiana Writer Award presented by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana at its annual Louisiana Book Festival. He was the Robert Penn Warren Professor at LSU from 2004–2007 and then Donald and Velvia Crumbley Professor from 2007–2010. LSU recognized him as the 2008 Distinguished Research Master of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences. In 2009 he won an LSU Distinguished Faculty Award. Wilcox currently has held the MacCurdy Distinguished Professorship since 2010. He also serves as Director of Creative Writing at LSU.

References

External links

''New Yorker'' article "Moby Dick in Manhattan"

* ttp://www.louisianabookfestival.org/LWA_james_wilcox.html ''Louisiana Writer Award: James Wilcox'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilcox, James 1949 births 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Living people Louisiana State University faculty Writers from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Yale University alumni People from Hammond, Louisiana American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Louisiana