Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. As a novelist, Banks is best known for his "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters".
His stories usually revolve around his own childhood experiences, and often reflect "moral themes and personal relationships".
Banks is a member of the International Parliament of Writers and a member of 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 ...
.
Life and career
Banks was born in
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of N ...
, on March 28, 1940, and grew up "in relative poverty."
[ He is the son of Florence (née Taylor), a homemaker, and Earl Banks, a plumber, and was raised in ]Barnstead, New Hampshire
Barnstead is a town in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,915 at the 2020 census, up from 4,593 at the 2010 census. Home to the Suncook Lakes, Barnstead includes the villages of Center Barnstead, Barnstead Parad ...
. His father deserted the family when Banks was aged 12. While he was awarded a scholarship to attend Colgate University
Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologic ...
, he dropped out six weeks into university and travelled south instead, with the "intention of joining Fidel Castro's insurgent army in Cuba, but wound up working in a department store in Lakeland, Florida
Lakeland is the most populous city in Polk County, Florida, part of the Tampa Bay Area, located along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal ci ...
".[ He married a sales clerk and they had a daughter.]
According to an interview with '' The Independent'', he started to write when he was living in Miami in the late-1950s, though an interview with '' The Paris Review'' dates this to Banks's subsequent spell living in Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...
. He moved back to New England in 1964 and then to North Carolina, where he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, funded by the family of his second wife, Mary Gunst.[ In Chapel Hill, Banks was involved in Students for a Democratic Society and protest during the ]Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the United ...
.[ In 1976, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Banks divorced Mary Gunst in 1977 after 14 years of marriage. He was subsequently married to Kathy Walton, an editor at Harper & Row, for five years.][
Banks now lives in Keene, ]upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
, wintering in Miami. He was a New York State Author for 2004–2006. He is also Artist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland. He has taught creative writing at Princeton University. He is married to the poet Chase Twichell
Chase Twichell (born August 20, 1950) is an American poet, professor, publisher, and, in 1999, the founder of Ausable Press. Her most recent poetry collection is ''Things as It Is'' (Copper Canyon Press, 2018). ''Horses Where the Answers Should Ha ...
, his fourth wife.[ Banks has four daughters from his previous marriages.][
Banks was the 1985 recipient of the ]John Dos Passos Prize
The John Dos Passos Prize is an annual literary award given to American writers.
The Prize was founded at Longwood University in 1980 and is meant to honor John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) ...
for fiction. ''Continental Drift'' and ''Cloudsplitter'' were finalists for the 1986 and 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...
respectively. Banks was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1996.
In popular culture, Banks was briefly mentioned in philosopher Richard Rorty's 1996 future history essay "Fraternity Reigns" in '' The New York Times Magazine'' as having written the fictional book ''Trampling the Vineyards'', described as "samizdat
Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documen ...
", in 2021.
Works and themes
His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous international prizes and awards. He has written fiction, and more recently, non-fiction, with ''Dreaming up America''. His main works include the novels ''Continental Drift
Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of pl ...
'', ''Rule of the Bone
''Rule of the Bone'' is a 1995 novel by Russell Banks. It is a Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story about the 14-year-old American narrator, Chappie, later dubbed Bone (named for a tattoo that he gets), who, after having dropped out of school, ...
'', '' Cloudsplitter'', '' The Sweet Hereafter'', and ''Affliction''. The latter two novels were each made into feature films in 1997 (see ''The Sweet Hereafter'' and ''Affliction'').
Many of Banks's works reflect his working-class upbringing. His stories often show people facing tragedy and downturns in everyday life, expressing sadness and self-doubt, but also showing resilience and strength in the face of their difficulties. Banks has also written short stories, some of which appear in the collection ''The Angel on the Roof
''The Angel on the Roof: The Stories of Russell Banks'' (2000) is a collection of short stories by Russell Banks. It consists of a total of thirty-one previously published stories, including twenty-two stories that appeared in earlier short st ...
'', as well as poetry.
Banks has also lived in Jamaica. Interviewed in 1998 for ''The Paris Review'', he stated that:
The themes of ''Continental Drift
Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of pl ...
'' (1985) include globalization and unrest in Haiti. His 2004 novel '' The Darling'' is largely set in Liberia and deals with the racial and political experience of the white American narrator.
Writing in the ''Journal of American Studies'', Anthony Hutchison argues that, " ide from William Faulkner it is difficult to think of a white twentieth-century American writer who has negotiated the issue of race in as sustained, unflinching and intelligent a fashion as Russell Banks".
Critics
According to Robert Faggen in ''The Paris Review'', Banks's debut novel, ''Family Life'', "was not a critical success". His next volume, a collection of short stories called ''Searching for Survivors'', won Banks an O. Henry Award
The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry.
The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty bes ...
. A second collection of short stories, ''The New World'', published in 1978, "received acclaim for its blending of historical and semi-autobiographical material".[
Many have admired Russell Banks' realistic writing, which often explores American social dilemmas and moral struggles. Reviewers have appreciated his portrayal of the working-class people struggling to overcome destructive relationships, poverty, drug abuse, and spiritual confusion. Scholars have variously compared Banks's fiction to the works of Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, and ]Andre Dubus
Andre Jules Dubus II (August 11, 1936 – February 24, 1999) was an American short story writer and essayist.
Biography
Early life and education
Andre Jules Dubus II was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the youngest child of Katherine (Burke ...
. Christine Benvenuto has commented that "Banks writes with an intensely focused empathy and a compassionate sense of humor that help to keep readers, if not his characters, afloat through the misadventures and outright tragedies of his books."
In 2011, '' The Guardian's'' Tom Cox selected ''Cloudsplitter'' as one of his "overlooked classics of American literature".
Awards and honors
*1985 John Dos Passos Prize
The John Dos Passos Prize is an annual literary award given to American writers.
The Prize was founded at Longwood University in 1980 and is meant to honor John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) ...
*1996 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
*2004-2006 New York State Author
*2012 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, shortlist, ''Lost Memory of Skin''
Works
;Novels
* ''Family Life'' (1975)
* ''Hamilton Stark'' (1978)
* ''The Book of Jamaica'' (1980)
* ''The Relation of My Imprisonment'' (1983)
* ''Continental Drift
Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of pl ...
'' (1985)
* '' Affliction'' (1989)
* '' The Sweet Hereafter'' (1991)
* ''Rule of the Bone
''Rule of the Bone'' is a 1995 novel by Russell Banks. It is a Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story about the 14-year-old American narrator, Chappie, later dubbed Bone (named for a tattoo that he gets), who, after having dropped out of school, ...
'' (1995)
* '' Cloudsplitter'' (1998)
* '' The Darling'' (2004)
* ''The Reserve'' (2008)
* ''Lost Memory of Skin'' (2011)
* ''Foregone'' (2021)
* ''The Magic Kingdom'' (2022)
;Story collections
* ''Searching for Survivors ''(1975)
* '' The New World'' (1978)
* ''Trailerpark'' (1981)
* ''Success Stories'' (1986)
* ''The Angel on the Roof
''The Angel on the Roof: The Stories of Russell Banks'' (2000) is a collection of short stories by Russell Banks. It consists of a total of thirty-one previously published stories, including twenty-two stories that appeared in earlier short st ...
'' (2000)
* ''A Permanent Member of the Family'' (2013)
;Poetry
* ''Waiting To Freeze (poetry) Waiting To Freeze'' (1969)
* ''Snow'' (1974)
;Nonfiction
* ''Invisible Stranger'' (1998)
* ''Dreaming Up America'' (2008)
* ''Voyager (2016)''
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Literary links
*http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/banksr.html
Russell Banks reads his short story "The Moor" on This American Life
at the Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the p ...
at the University of Texas at Austin
Essay on Banks' short stories
Interviews
*
Interview, 2003: https://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/rbanks.html
Interview March, 2008
*
Interview with Russell Banks
''A DISCUSSION WITH National Authors on Tour'' TV Series, Episode #159 (1995)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banks, Russell
1940 births
Living people
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American male writers
American male screenwriters
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Writers from Newton, Massachusetts
Princeton University faculty
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
21st-century American novelists
American male novelists
American male short story writers
20th-century American short story writers
21st-century American short story writers
People from Keene, New York
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners
American Book Award winners
21st-century American male writers
Novelists from New Jersey
Novelists from Massachusetts
Screenwriters from New York (state)
Screenwriters from Massachusetts
Screenwriters from New Jersey