Kevin John Brockmeier (born December 6, 1972) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

and literary fiction.

Life and career

Brockmeier was born in

Hialeah, Florida Hialeah ( ; ) is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. With a population of 223,109 as of the 2020 census, Hialeah is the sixth-largest city in Florida. It is the second largest city by population in the Miami metropolitan area ...

and raised in

Little Rock, Arkansas ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

. He is a graduate of

Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School :'' For other places with this name, see Parkview School (disambiguation).'' Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School is a magnet school in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States that concentrates heavily on science and the arts. It is Arkansa ...

(1991) and

Southwest Missouri State University Missouri State University (MSU or MO State), formerly Southwest Missouri State University, is a public university in Springfield, Missouri. Founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, it is the state's second largest university by enr ...

(1995). He taught at 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 W ...

, where he received his MFA in 1997, and lives in Little Rock. His short stories have been printed in numerous publications and he has published two collections of stories, two children's novels, and two fantasy novels. Brockmeier has won three O. Henry Prizes, the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren Award for Short Fiction, Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award, the Booker Worthen Literary Prize, and the Porter Fund Literary Prize.

Published works

Story collections

* '' Things That Fall from the Sky'' (

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

: Pantheon Books, 2002, ) * '' The View From The Seventh Layer'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2008, ) * '' The Ghost Variations'' (Penguin Random House, 2021, )

Novels

* ''The Truth About Celia'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2003, ) * '' The Brief History of the Dead'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2006, ) * '' The Illumination'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2011, ) * ''A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip: A Memoir of Seventh Grade'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2014, )

For younger readers

* ''City of Names'' (Viking, 2002) * ''Grooves: A Kind of Mystery'' (New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2006, )

Miscellaneous stories

* "The Brief History of the Dead" (published in ''

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 ...

'' September 8, 2003; used as the first chapter of the novel by the same name) For more information on individual stories, see '' Things That Fall from the Sky''

Anthologies as Editor

*''Real Unreal: Best American Fantasy 3'', edited by Kevin Brockmeier ( Portland,

Underland Press Underland Press is a publishing company founded by Victoria Blake, a writer and the former prose editor for Dark Horse Comics. Underland Press was sold to Resurrection House in September 2013. Debut authors for ''Underland Press'' included: Bra ...

, scheduled January 2010, ). :Featuring stories by: Stephen King, Peter S. Beagle,

Laura Kasischke Laura Kasischke is an American fiction writer and poet. She is best known for writing the novels '' Suspicious River'', ''The Life Before Her Eyes'' and '' White Bird in a Blizzard'', all of which have been adapted to film. Life and work She was ...

Jeffrey Ford Jeffrey Ford (born November 8, 1955) is an American writer in the fantastic genre tradition, although his works have spanned genres including fantasy, science fiction and mystery. His work is characterized by a sweeping imaginative power, humo ...

Lisa Goldstein Lisa Goldstein (born Elizabeth Joy Goldstein on November 21, 1953) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer whose work has been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. Her 1982 novel '' The Red Magician'' won a Nation ...

Paul Tremblay Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

, Will Clarke, Thomas Glave,

John Kessel John Joseph Vincent Kessel (born September 24, 1950) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. He is a prolific short story writer, and the author of four solo novels, '' Good News From Outer Space'' (1989), ''Corrupting Dr. Nice'' ...

, Kellie Wells, Ryan Boudinot, Rebecca Makkai, Martin Cozza, Chris Gavaler, Deborah Scwartzand, Shawn Vestal, and Katie Williams.

Awards and honors

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 ...

(2000 for the short story "These Hands" and 2002 for " The Ceiling") * Nelson Algren Award * Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award * James Michener–Paul Engle Fellowship *

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

grant recipient

References

External links

"@illumination_bk"
THE ILLUMINATION (Pantheon Books, 2/1/2011) on Twitter.
"The Brief History of the Dead"
Kevin Brockmeier site at Random House.

EarthGoat. April 3, 2006.

by Mary McMyne. Web del Sol/Algonkian Workshops.
Interview
with Kevin Brockmeier on KRUI's''The Lit Show'', 2/1/2011. *
"Surviving Middle School: A Memoir of Seventh Grade"
Interview on Iowa Public Radio: ''Talk of Iowa,'' 9/14/15. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brockmeier, Kevin American children's writers American fantasy writers 21st-century American novelists Living people Writers from Little Rock, Arkansas Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty 1972 births American male novelists American male short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Iowa Weird fiction writers O. Henry Award winners