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Madison Smartt Bell (born August 1, 1957, in
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...
) is an American novelist. While established as a writer by several early novels, he is especially known for his trilogy of novels about
Toussaint Louverture François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
and the
Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution (french: révolution haïtienne ; ht, revolisyon ayisyen) was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt began on ...
, published 1995–2004.


Early life and education

Raised in
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...
, Madison Smartt Bell is a graduate of Montgomery Bell Academy. He is a graduate of
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, where he won the Ward Mathis Prize and the Francis Leymoyne Page award, and
Hollins University Hollins University is a private university in Hollins, Virginia. Founded in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary in the historical settlement of Botetourt Springs, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States ...
, where he won the Andrew James Purdy fiction award. He later lived in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
before settling in
Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore wa ...
.


Career

Bell is a Professor of English at
Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a private liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland. It was chartered in 1885 by a conference in Baltimore led by namesake John F. Goucher and local leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.https://archive.org/details/h ...
in
Towson, Maryland Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincor ...
, where he was Director of the Creative Writing Program from 1998 to 2004. Bell has taught in various creative writing programs, including 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 ...
, the Poetry Center of the
92nd Street Y 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the ...
, and the
Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars Founded in 1947, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars is an academic program offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in writing in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts & Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. It is the second-oldest creative writing ...
. In addition, he has written essays and reviews for '' Harper's'', ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', and the ''
New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
''. His papers are held at Princeton University and at East Carolina University. The latter contains papers related to novels and other writing early in his career, up to 1990.


Personal life

Bell is married to the poet Elizabeth Spires, who also teaches at Goucher College. They have a daughter, Celia Dovell Bell.


Awards

* ''All Souls' Rising'', a novel about
Toussaint Louverture François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
and the
Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution (french: révolution haïtienne ; ht, revolisyon ayisyen) was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt began on ...
, was a finalist for the 1995
National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...
and the 1996
PEN/Faulkner Award 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 ...
. It won the 1996 Anisfield-Wolf Award for the best book of the year dealing with matters of race. * He won a Strauss Living Award from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
.


Bibliography


Fiction

*''The Washington Square Ensemble'' (novel) (Viking Press, 1983) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1984) *''Waiting For The End Of The World'' (novel) (Ticknor & Fields, 1985) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1986) *''Straight Cut'' (novel) (Ticknor & Fields, 1986) (Penguin mass-market paperback, 1987) (re-issued by
Hard Case Crime Hard Case Crime is an American imprint of hardboiled crime novels founded in 2004 by Charles Ardai (also the founder of the Internet service Juno Online Services) and Max Phillips. The series recreates, in editorial form and content, the flavo ...
in 2006) *''Zero db'' (short fiction) (Ticknor & Fields, 1987) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1988) *''The Year Of Silence'' (novel) (Ticknor & Fields, 1987) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1989) *''Soldier's Joy'' (novel) (Ticknor & Fields, 1989) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1990) *''Barking Man'' (short fiction) (Ticknor & Fields, 1990) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1991) (Quality Paperback Club, 1991) *''Doctor Sleep'' (novel) (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1992), (adapted for film as ''Close Your Eyes'' (2002), now also known as Doctor Sleep) *''Save Me, Joe Louis'' (novel) (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1994) *''All Souls' Rising'' (novel, 1st part of Haiti Trilogy) (Pantheon, 1995) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1996) *''Ten Indians'' (novel) (Pantheon, 1996) (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1997) *''Master of the Crossroads'' (novel, 2nd part of Haiti Trilogy) (Pantheon, 2000) *''Anything Goes'' (Pantheon, 2002) *''The Stone That the Builder Refused'' (novel, 3rd part of Haiti Trilogy) (Pantheon, 2004) * ''Charm City'' (Crown: 2007) * ''Devil's Dream'' (novel about
Nathan Bedford Forrest Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821October 29, 1877) was a prominent Confederate Army general during the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867 to 1869. Before the war, Forrest amassed substantial wealt ...
and the American Civil War) (Pantheon, 2009) * ''The Color of Night'' (Vintage, 2011) * ''Zig Zag Wanderer'' (Concord Free Press, 2013) * ''Behind the Moon'' (City Lights Publishers, 2017)


Non-fiction

*''Narrative Design: A Writer's Guide to Structure'' (textbook) (W.W. Norton, 1997) *''Narrative Design: Working with Imagination, Craft, and Form'' (trade paperback edition) (Norton, 2000) *''Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution'' (non-fiction) (Norton, released June 13, 2005) *''Freedom's Gate: A Brief Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture'' (non-fiction) (Pantheon, 2007) *''Child of Light: A Biography of Robert Stone'' (non-fiction), (Doubleday, 2020)


References


External links


KEVIN LANAHAN, "Bell's 'Stone' caps acclaimed Haiti trilogy"
SUNY Albany, Writers Institute
Stuart Wright Collection: Madison Smartt Bell Papers, 1922–1990 (#1169-001), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina UniversityJeremy D. Popkin, "Madison Smartt Bell's Haitian Revolution Trilogy"
Fiction and Film for Scholars of France, H-France
''Close Your Eyes''
IMDb * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Madison Smartt 1957 births 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American biographers 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers American male biographers American male essayists American male novelists American male short story writers Goucher College faculty and staff Hollins University alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Living people Novelists from Iowa Novelists from Maryland Novelists from Tennessee PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners People from Nashville, Tennessee Princeton University alumni Writers from Baltimore