Laird Hunt (born April 3, 1968) is an American writer, translator and academic.

Life

Hunt grew up in Singapore, San Francisco, The Hague, and London before moving to his grandmother's farm in rural Indiana, where he attended Clinton Central High School. He earned a B.A. from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the

Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics is a school of Naropa University, located in Boulder, Colorado, United States. It was founded in 1974 by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, as part of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s 100-year experim ...

Naropa University Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university describes itself as B ...

. He also studied French literature at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. Hunt worked in the press office at the United Nations while writing his first novel. He was a professor in the Creative Writing program at

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

. Hunt lives with his wife, the poet

Eleni Sikelianos Eleni Sikelianos (born 1965) is an American experimental poet with a particular interest in scientific idiom. She is Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University. Early life Sikelianos is the great-granddaughter of the Greek poet Angelos Sike ...

, in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

, and works as a professor of Literary Arts at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

Writing career

Hunt is the author of eight novels and a collection of short work, including the 2021 National Book Award finalist
Zorrie
'. Hunt has also translated several novels from the French including Oliver Rohe's ''Vacant Lot'' (2010), Stuart Merrill's ''Paul Verlaine'' (2010). His works intersect several genres, including experimental literature, exploratory fiction, literary noir, speculative fiction and difficult fiction and include elements ranging from the bizarre, the tragic, and the comic. His influences include

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Holoc ...

, W. G. Sebald,

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

and the French Modernists. Hunt's reviews and essays have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Beast, the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Los Angeles Times, and his fiction and translations have appeared in many literary journals, including '' Conjunctions'', ''

McSweeney's McSweeney's Publishing is an American non-profit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. Initially publishing the literary journal'' Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', the company has moved to n ...

'', ''

Bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...

'', ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Boston. ...

'', ''

Bookforum ''Bookforum'' is an American book review magazine devoted to books and the discussion of literature that was based in New York City, New York. The magazine was founded in 1994 and announced in December of 2022 it would cease publishing after ...

'', '' The Believer'', ''

Fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length. ...

,'' and Zoetrope, is the former editor of the ''

Denver Quarterly The ''Denver Quarterly'' (known as ''The University of Denver Quarterly'' until 1970) is an avant-garde literary journal based at the University of Denver. Founded in 1966 by novelist John Edward Williams. ''Publisher'' ''Denver Quarterly'' i ...

''. A former United Nations press officer who was raised in rural Indiana, he now lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he teaches i
Brown University’s Literary Arts Program
and spends his days with his wife, the poe
Eleni Sikelianos
their daughter, Eva, and two cats.

Awards and honors

* 2013

Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

for fiction for ''Kind One'' * 2013

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US$5000. Fi ...

finalist for ''Kind One'' * 2015

Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine (''American Literature Grand Prize'') is a French literary award given each year to an American novel translated into French and published in that year starting January 1. The first award was in 2015. The award ...

for ''Neverhome'' *2021 National Book Award for Fiction finalist for ''Zorrie''

Film adaptations

In 2014, it was announced that Irish director

Lenny Abrahamson Leonard Ian Abrahamson (born 30 November 1966) is an Irish film and television director. He is known for directing such praised independent films as ''Adam & Paul'' (2004), ''Garage'' (2007), ''What Richard Did'' (2012), and ''Frank'' (2014), an ...

would film an adaptation of Hunt's Civil War novel ''Neverhome''.

Works

*''Dear Home''.

Small Press Distribution Small Press Distribution (SPD) is a non-profit literary arts organization located in Berkeley, California. As their name indicates, the core of their mission is to act as an umbrella distributor and marketer for hundreds of smaller literary publi ...

. 1999. * * * * * * * * Contributed to ''The &NOW Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing''. &NOW Books, Lake Forest College Press. 2013. *
The Evening Road
'' New York: Little Brown and Company. 2017. *
In the House in the Dark of the Woods
'' Little, Brown and Company. 2018. *
Zorrie
'' Bloomsbury Publishing. 2021. ISBN 978-1-6355753-6-1
National Book Award Finalist
*
This Wide Terraqueous World
', Coffee House Press, 2023. ISBN 978-1-56689-667-2

References

External links

Laird Hunt's office website

Laird Hunt at Coffee House Press

Laird Hunt at Bloomsbury

Laird Hunt at Little, Brown

Interviews

Weekend Edition
November 13, 2021
Transatlantica
December 2021
Harvard Bookstore
February 2021

March 17, 2017
Issuu
February 11, 2016
Bookforum
January 18, 2013
Hobart (Part One)
January 1, 2010
Hobart (Part Two)
February 1, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Laird Living people 1968 births Writers from Boulder, Colorado Indiana University alumni American male novelists 21st-century American novelists PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners 21st-century American male writers Brown University faculty