Stephen Dixon (born Stephen Bruce Ditchik; June 6, 1936 – November 6, 2019) was an American author of novels and

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

Life and career

Dixon was born on June 6, 1936 in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York. He was the fifth of seven children of Florence Leder, a beauty queen, chorus girl on Broadway, and interior decorator, and Abraham M. Ditchik. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1958 and was a faculty member of

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

. Before becoming a full-time writer, Dixon worked a plethora of odd jobs ranging from bus driver to bartender. In his early 20s he worked as a journalist and in radio, interviewing such political figures as

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

and

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

. Dixon was nominated for the

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 ...

twice, in 1991 for ''

Frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

'' and in 1995 for ''

Interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

''. He also was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, 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 ...

Prize for Fiction, the

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 best ...

, and the Pushcart Prize. He cited Anton Chekhov, Samuel Beckett,

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 ...

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civilizat ...

, and

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

as some of his favorite authors. Dixon died from complications of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

at a hospice center 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 ...

on November 6, 2019; he was 83.

Works

Novels

*''Work'' (Street Fiction Press, 1977) *''Too Late'' (

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

, 1978) *''Fall & Rise'' (North Point Press, 1985) *''Garbage'' (Cane Hill Press, 1988) *''Frog'' (British American Publishing, 1991) *''Interstate'' ( Henry Holt, 1995) *''Gould'' (Henry Holt, 1997) *''30: Pieces of a Novel'' (Henry Holt, 1999) *''Tisch'' (

Red Hen Press Red Hen Press is an American non-profit press located in Pasadena, California, and specializing in the publication of poetry, literary fiction, and nonfiction. The press is a member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, and was a final ...

, 2000) (his first completed novel, written 1961-1969) *''I.'' (

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 ...

, 2002) *''Old Friends'' (

Melville House Publishing Melville House Publishing is an American independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The company was founded in 2001 and is run by the husband-and-wife team of Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians in Hoboken, New Jersey. T ...

, 2004) *''Phone Rings'' (

, 2005) *''End of I.'' (McSweeney's, 2006) *''Meyer'' (

, 2007) *''Story of a Story and Other Stories: A Novel'' (

Fugue State Press Fugue State Press (established 1992) is a small New York City fiction publisher, specializing in the experimental novel. Novelist James Chapman is the founder and publisher. It has published 28 titles to date, including work by Chapman, Josh ...

), 2012 *''His Wife Leaves Him'' ( Fantagraphics Books), 2013 *''Letters to Kevin'' ( Fantagraphics Books), 2016 *''Beatrice'' (

Publishing Genius Publishing Genius is an independent publisher located in Atlanta, Georgia, originally based in Baltimore, Maryland. The press, run by Adam Robinson, has published novels, short stories and poetry since 2006, including work by Stephanie Barber, Rac ...

), 2016

Story collections

*''No Relief'' (Street Fiction Press, 1976) *''Quite Contrary: The Mary and Newt Story'' (Harper & Row, 1979) *''14 Stories'' (Johns Hopkins, 1980) *''Movies: Seventeen Stories'' (North Point Press, 1983) *''Time to Go'' (Will and Magna Stories) (Johns Hopkins, 1984) *''The Play and Other Stories'' (

Coffee House Press Coffee House Press is a nonprofit independent press based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The press’s goal is to "produce books that celebrate imagination, innovation in the craft of writing, and the many authentic voices of the American experience ...

, 1988) *''Love and Will: Twenty Stories'' (

Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phil ...

Editions / British American Publishing, 1989) *''All Gone: 18 Short Stories'' (Johns Hopkins, 1990) *''Friends: More Will and Magna Stories'' (Asylum Arts, 1990) *''Long Made Short'' (Johns Hopkins, 1994) *''The Stories of Stephen Dixon'' (Henry Holt, 1994) *''Man on Stage: Play Stories'' (Hi Jinx Press, 1996) *''Sleep'' (

, 1999) *''The Switch'' (Rain Taxi, 1999) (a single story; Rain Taxi Brainstorm Series, Number 3) *''What Is All This?: The Uncollected Stories of Stephen Dixon'' ( Fantagraphics Books, 2010) *''Late Stories'' ( Trnsfr Books, 2016) *Dear Abigail was published on 2/5/19. Writing Written was published on 2/26/19.''Dear Abigail and Other Stories'' ( Trnsfr Books, 2019) *''Writing, Written'' ( Fantagraphics Books, 2019)

References

External links

10/14/19 Review of his most recent (2019) booksComprehensive career interview with Fifth Wednesday Journal.2002 profile of Dixon in ''The Johns Hopkins News-Letter''"The Plug", Dixon on Thomas Bernhard, at Rain Taxi
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20020805125535/http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2002/06/14paris.html Excerpt from the novel ''I.'', at ''McSweeney's Internet Tendency'' with links to other excerpts, and to comments on Dixon's work by Jonathan Lethem and J. Robert Lennon.
February 2007 article about Dixon in ''Baltimore City Paper''Dixon interviewed
by

Tao Lin Tao Lin (; born July 2, 1983) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, short-story writer, and artist. He has published four novels, a novella, two books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and a memoir, as well as an extensive assortment of ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Stephen 1936 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers American male novelists American male short story writers Deaths from Parkinson's disease Neurological disease deaths in Maryland MacDowell Colony fellows Johns Hopkins University faculty Novelists from Maryland Novelists from New York (state) PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners Writers from New York City Writers from Baltimore