Stewart O'Nan (born February 4, 1961) is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

Life and work

Background

Born on February 4, 1961, to John Lee O'Nan II and Mary Ann O'Nan (''née'' Smith), he and his brother John were raised in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, where their father worked for

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for Aluminum Company of America) is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary ...

. O'Nan earned his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

Aerospace Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

in 1983. While 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- mo ...

, O'Nan became a fan of the

Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

. On October 27, 1984, he married Trudy Anne Southwick, his high school sweetheart. They moved to

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, and he went to work for

Grumman Aerospace Corporation The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 ...

Bethpage, New York Bethpage (formerly known as Central Park) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 16,429 at the 2010 United States Cen ...

, as a test engineer from 1984 to 1988. Encouraged by his wife to pursue a career in writing, they moved to

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

, and O'Nan returned to college and graduated with his M.F.A. from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1992. His family and he then moved to

Edmond, Oklahoma Edmond is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area in the central part of the state. The population was 94,428 according to the 2020 United States Census, making it the fifth largest cit ...

, and he taught at the

University of Central Oklahoma The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO or Central State) is a public university in Edmond, Oklahoma. It is the third largest university in Oklahoma, with more than 17,000 students and approximately 434 full-time and 400 adjunct faculty. Founde ...

and the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

. From 1995 to 1998, he was a writer-in-residence at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Short stories

O'Nan's first book, and only collection of short stories, ''In the Walled City'', was awarded the 1993

Drue Heinz Literature Prize The Drue Heinz Literature Prize is a major American literary award for short fiction in the English language. This prize of the University of Pittsburgh Press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States was initiated in 1981 by Drue Heinz and dev ...

. Many of the stories in that collection also originally appeared in publications such as ''Ascent'' (the short story "Econoline"), ''Columbia'' (the short story "The Third of July"), ''Jam To-Day'' (the short story "Mr Wu Thinks"), ''

The Nebraska Review ''The Nebraska Review'' was a leading American literary magazine, based at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Nebraska. The magazine was founded in 1972 by Richard Duggan and published until 2003. Notable contributors *John Addiego * Jacob M. ...

'' (the short story "Winter Haven), ''

Northwest Review The University of Oregon has a diverse array of student-run and non-student-run media outlets. Newspapers ''Daily Emerald'' The ''Daily Emerald'', published Monday through Friday, primarily features news items and commentary pertaining to the U ...

'' (the short story "The Finger"), ''

The South Dakota Review The ''South Dakota Review'' (''SDR'') is a quarterly literary magazine published by the University of South Dakota. History and profile ''SDR'' was founded in 1963 by John R. Milton and is currently edited by Lee Ann Roripaugh. Past associate ...

'' (the short story "The Calling") and ''

The Threepenny Review ''The Threepenny Review'' is an American literary magazine founded in 1980. It is published in Berkeley, California, by founding editor Wendy Lesser. Maintaining a quarterly schedule (March, June, September, December), it offers fiction, memoirs, ...

'' (the short story "Steak").

Novels

Also in 1993, O'Nan was able to find a publisher for his second book, and first novel, '' Snow Angels''—based on the story "Finding Amy" from ''In the Walled City''—when the manuscript earned him the first Pirate's Alley Faulkner Prize for the Novel, awarded by the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society of New Orleans. In 2007 ''Snow Angels'' was adapted for a film of the same title, directed by

David Gordon Green David Gordon Green is an American filmmaker. He directed the dramas ''George Washington'' (2000), ''All the Real Girls'' (2003), and '' Snow Angels'' (2007), as well as the thriller '' Undertow'' (2004), all of which he wrote or co-wrote. In 2 ...

, who also wrote the screenplay, and which starred

Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in independent films and also as a character actor portraying a wide variety of roles both comedic and dramatic in films such as '' Lawn Dogs'' (199 ...

and

Kate Beckinsale Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress and model. After some minor television roles, her film debut was ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She appeared in British costume ...

. In 1995, his family and he moved to

Avon, Connecticut Avon ( ) is a town in the Farmington Valley region of Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 18,932. History Avon was settled in 1645 and was originally a part of neighboring Farmington, ...

. He was a writer-in-residence and taught creative writing at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

in nearby

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

until 1997. The research he did for his novel ''The Names of the Dead'' led to the creation of a class that studied

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

memoirs as a form of literature, which he also initially taught. In 1996,

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

named him one of America's Best Young Novelists. In a 2002 article, "Finding Time to Write," he wrote: ''A Face in the Crowd'' is a

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

and O'Nan, originally published as an

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

on August 21, 2012, as well as an

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

, read by

Craig Wasson Craig Wasson (born March 15, 1954) is an American actor. He made his film debut in ''Rollercoaster'' (1977). He is best known for his roles as Jake Scully in Brian DePalma's ''Body Double'' (1984), and Neil Gordon in Chuck Russell's '' A Nightmar ...

. In 2015, O'Nan released a novel entitled ''West of Sunset'', about the last days of writer

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

as he moves out to Los Angeles after being ruined financially and experiencing health problems, after his wife is put in an insane asylum. Filmmaker

James Ponsoldt James Adam Ponsoldt (born 1978) is an American film director, actor and screenwriter. He directed the drama films ''Off the Black'' (2006) and ''Smashed (film), Smashed'' (2012), the romantic comedy-drama ''The Spectacular Now'' (2013), and the dr ...

has been in negotiations to write and direct a film adaptation of the book, with actors like

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

Emily Watson Emily Margaret Watson (born 14 January 1967) is an English actress. She began her career on stage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992. In 2002, she starred in productions of ''Twelfth Night'' and ''Uncle Vanya'' at the Donmar War ...

and

Alicia Vikander Alicia Amanda Vikander (, ; born 3 October 1988) is a Swedish actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, as well as receiving nominations for ...

currently being attached.

Nonfiction books

When he researched ''The Circus Fire'', he advertised in ''

The Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...

'' and received many answers to his request for interviews with survivors of the

Hartford Circus fire The Hartford circus fire, which occurred on July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, was one of the worst fire disasters in United States history. The fire occurred during an afternoon performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Cir ...

. In the spring of 2005 O'Nan spoke at the Lucy Robbins Welles Library in

Newington, Connecticut Newington is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. Located south of downtown Hartford, Newington is an older, mainly residential suburb located in Greater Hartford. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,536. The Connecticu ...

, as the featured author in its One Book, 4 Towns program. In an article for Connecticut Magazine, when asked about '' Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season'', the book he co-authored with

, O'Nan replied, "I always tell my friends that the luckiest thing that ever happened to me was becoming a Red Sox fan."

Screenplays and other writing

In 2008,

Lonely Road Books Lonely Road Books is a small press publishing company founded in 2007 by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar and based out of Forest Hill, Maryland. They are a publishing company that specializes in deluxe signed limited edition books. L ...

sold out its pre-orders for O'Nan's latest writing, a screenplay simply titled ''Poe''. It is a dramatic retelling of the life of

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

. The screenplay was released as a limited edition of 200 copies and as a lettered edition of 26 copies. It features a foreword by

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...

and frontispieces by

Jill Bauman Jill Bauman is an American artist. She has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award five times and nominated for the Chesley Award several times. Her art has been exhibited at the Delaware Art Museum, the Moore College of Art, Art Students Leag ...

Works

Short story collections

*''In the Walled City'' (

University of Pittsburgh Press The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The press ...

, 1993)

Novels

*''Transmission'' (Arjuna Library, 1987) *'' Snow Angels'' (Doubleday/BDD, 1994) *''The Names of the Dead'' (Doubleday/BDD, 1996) *''The Speed Queen'' (Doubleday/ BDD, 1997) *''A World Away'' (Henry Holt/Macmillan, 1998) *''A Prayer for the Dying'' (Henry Holt/Macmillan, 1999) *''

Everyday People "Everyday People" is a 1968 song composed by Sly Stone and first recorded by his band, Sly and the Family Stone. It was the first single by the band to go to number one on the Soul singles chart and the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. It held ...

'' (Grove Press, 2001) *''Wish You Were Here'' (Grove Press, 2002) *''The Night Country'' (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Macmillan, 2003) *''The Good Wife'' (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Macmillan, 2005) *'' Last Night at the Lobster'' (

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

, 2007) *''Songs for the Missing'' (Viking/Penguin, October 2008) *''Emily, Alone'' (Viking/Penguin, March 2011) *''The Odds'' (Viking/Penguin, January 2012) *'' A Face in the Crowd'' (Simon & Schuster Digital, August 2012) (e-book and audiobook novella co-written with

) *''West of Sunset'' (Viking/Penguin/ PRH, January 2015) *''City of Secrets'': a novel (Viking, 26 April 2016) *''Henry, Himself'' (Viking, May 2019) *''Ocean State'' (Atlantic Monthly Press, March 2022)

Screenplays

*''Poe'' (

, 2008)

Nonfiction

*'' The Circus Fire'' (Doubleday, 2000) *'' Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season'' (with

) (Scribner, 2004)

As editor

*''On Writers and Writing'' by John Gardner (Addison-Wesley, 1994) *''The Vietnam Reader: The Definitive Collection of Fiction and Nonfiction on the War'' (Anchor Books, 1998)

References

External links

Official Website1997 Interview
in ''by Ron Hogan's Beatrice''

in the

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

The Bat Segundo Show ''The Bat Segundo Show'' was a podcast based in New York City run by writer and literary critic Edward Champion between 2004 and 2012. It was revived in mid-2013. The program features comprehensive interviews with prominent figures in arts and ...

(radio interviews)
2007 (40 minutes)2012 (one hour)
*

External links

Stewart O'Nan
at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

Authorities — with 6 catalog records {{DEFAULTSORT:Onan, Stewart 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Writers from Pittsburgh Cornell University alumni Boston University College of Engineering alumni 1961 births Living people University of Central Oklahoma faculty People from Avon, Connecticut Writers from Ithaca, New York 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from Pennsylvania