Stuart Dybek (born April 10, 1942) is an American writer of fiction and poetry.
Biography
Dybek, a second-generation
Polish American
Polish Americans ( pl, Polonia amerykańska) are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 9.15 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.83 ...
, was born in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
and raised in Chicago's
Little Village
Little Village was an American/British rock band, formed in 1991 by Ry Cooder (guitar, vocal), John Hiatt (guitar, piano, vocal), Nick Lowe (bass, vocal) and Jim Keltner (drums). Each of the group's members had previously worked on Hiatt's 1987 ...
and
Pilsen neighborhoods in the 1950s and early 1960s. He graduated from
St. Rita of Cascia High School in 1959 and earned an
MFA from 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 Wri ...
at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
. He has an
MA in literature from
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Cathol ...
.
Often compared to
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only wr ...
and
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
for his unique portrayal of setting and landscapes, Dybek is "among the first writers of Polish descent (who write about the ethnic self) to receive national recognition."
After teaching for more than 30 years at
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...
, where he remains an Adjunct Professor of English and a member of the permanent faculty of the Prague Summer Program, Dybek became the Distinguished Writer in Residence at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
where he teaches at the
School of Professional Studies.
Work
Dybek's two collections of poems are ''Brass Knuckles'' (1979) and ''Streets in Their Own Ink'' (2004). His fiction includes ''Childhood and Other Neighborhoods'', ''The Coast of Chicago'', ''
I Sailed With Magellan'', a novel-in-stories, ''Paper Lantern: Love Stories'', and ''Ecstatic Cahoots: Fifty Short Stories''. His work has been anthologized and has appeared in magazines such as ''
Harper's'', ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', ''
Poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
'', ''
Tin House
''Tin House'' is an American book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer of 1998. He enlisted Holly MacArt ...
'', ''
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. ...
'', and ''Triquarterly''.
His collection, ''The Coast of Chicago'', was selected as a
New York Times Notable Book
''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 ...
and cited as an
American Library Association Notable Book American Library Association Notable lists are announced each year in January by various divisions within the American Library Association (ALA). There are six lists, part of the larger ALA awards structure.
* ''ALA Notable Books for Adults'' (est ...
of 2005. A story from ''I Sailed With Magellan'', titled "Breasts," appears in the 2004 ''
Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of '' The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in co ...
''.
Dybek was a participant in the Michigan Writers Series at
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
, where he read from his work.
Awards
Dybek's awards include a
Lannan Prize, a
PEN/Malamud Award
The PEN/Malamud Award and Memorial Reading honors "excellence in the art of the short story", and is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. The selection committee is composed of PEN/Faulkner directors and representatives of Bernard Ma ...
(1995), a
Whiting Award (1985), a
Guggenheim fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
, and 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 best ...
. Dybek was awarded a
MacArthur Fellowship
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...
on September 25, 2007.
MacArthur Fellows announced
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Bibliography
Novels and short story collections
*
*
*
*
*
Poetry collections
*
*
Pelligro
Short stories and essays
* "''Prayer''" , X-1 Experimental Fiction Project , The Smith: 1976 , 49-52
*
*
References
External links
Profile at The Whiting Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dybek, Stuart
American male poets
1942 births
Living people
Loyola University Chicago alumni
University of Iowa alumni
Western Michigan University faculty
Northern Michigan University faculty
Northwestern University faculty
Writers from Michigan
Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni
Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty
Polish-American culture in Chicago
MacArthur Fellows
American people of Polish descent
O. Henry Award winners
PEN/Malamud Award winners