Christian Bauman
Encyclopedia
Christian Bauman is an American novelist, essayist, and lyricist. A former soldier, Bauman is arguably best known for his critically acclaimed 2002 debut novel
The Ice Beneath You, about the return of a young American soldier from Somalia. Of his 2005 novel Voodoo Lounge (about a female soldier with HIV during the 1994 occupation of Haiti), National Book Award
-winning writer Robert Stone said, "The prose in Voodoo Lounge reverberates in the white space around it." Bauman's first two novels are among the very small group of war-based literary fiction produced by Generation X
. His third novel, titled In Hoboken (2008), is a departure from the first two, centered on a group of young musicians in the mid-1990s, and the mental-health facility where one of them works. Reviewing In Hoboken, critic Paul Constant wrote, "Bauman is an incredible writer. This is one of those books -- like Lethem when he's cooking, say, or Chabon at his most vibrant -- when every line snaps and propels you forward." The covers of Bauman's first two novels carried quotes by Hubert Selby, Jr.
and Robert Stone, respectively, and although his prose is stylistically different, there are clear parallels in Bauman's work to those writers. Christian Bauman's short essays appeared regularly on National Public Radio's All Things Considered
between 2003–2006, as well as occasional longer nonfiction for IdentityTheory.com. Bauman is the creative director of an advertising agency in New York. He regularly updates his personal blog, including posts about progress on two new novels.
, Pennsylvania
in 1970. He began grade school while living in Doylestown, Pennsylvania
, and moved to Quakertown, New Jersey when he was in the fourth grade. He remained there until he left home at age 17. He graduated from North Hunterdon High School
near Clinton, New Jersey
, in 1988, and did not attend college. His daughter Kristina was also born in 1988. He has a second daughter, Fiona, born in 1999.
Bauman's family traveled a great deal around North America and Europe when he was a child. The family spent a year in India
, Nepal
, and Sri Lanka
in 1983-84, when Bauman would have been in 8th grade. Bauman was raised by his stepfather (a philosophy professor) and mother (a physician); his biological father was only an occasional presence in his life and spent a year in prison when Bauman was a child. In a 2003 interview with Terry Gross
on NPR's Fresh Air
Bauman said his childhood was not a particularly happy one. In a 2008 public radio interview with Vin Scelsa
, he stated he is now estranged from almost all of his family.
The subject matter of Christian Bauman's first two novels was drawn from his experiences as a US Army soldier. He joined the army in 1991, at age 21, and remained in for four years. He was a member of the small army boat field (Army Waterborne), and served in Somalia
in 1992-93 (on an LCM-8
), and Haiti
in 1994 (on the LSV-1). In both cases, Bauman was among the first American troops in the deployment—within the opening weeks of the Somalia mission, and within the first hour of the Haiti occupation.
Following his honorable discharge in 1995, Bauman spent the next few years writing and playing guitar on the North American folk circuit, both alone and as part of the group Camp Hoboken (which also included folksingers Gregg Cagno
and Linda Sharar
in its ranks). Christian was frequently an opener for acts including Pete Seeger
, Jack Hardy
, John Gorka
, Odetta
, Cheryl Wheeler
, and Livingston Taylor
, at venues like Godfrey Daniels, Passim, Eddie's Attic
, The Iron Horse
, and Freight & Salvage. This time period serves as the basis of Bauman's third novel, In Hoboken.
Bauman wrote both songs and short stories during the 1990s. Some of the songs (including one called "Kismaayo", written in Mogadishu and mailed back to Jack Hardy
, who then performed it at the Bottom Line
) are in the Smithsonian's Folkways
Collection of New York's Fast Folk
recordings. None of Bauman's short stories from the time have been published. A few small sections of The Ice Beneath You were written in Somalia during Bauman's deployment there, but the majority was penned in 1999-2000; the novel was purchased by Simon & Schuster in 2001 and published in 2002. In his book What Every Person Should Know About War, author Chris Hedges
called The Ice Beneath You "One of the finest books about life in the American army."
On National Public Radio, the majority of Bauman's commentaries for All Things Considered have been about the four years he was a soldier, but he has also written about his origins as a writer, his daughters, and his time as a touring musician.
Debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...
The Ice Beneath You, about the return of a young American soldier from Somalia. Of his 2005 novel Voodoo Lounge (about a female soldier with HIV during the 1994 occupation of Haiti), National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
-winning writer Robert Stone said, "The prose in Voodoo Lounge reverberates in the white space around it." Bauman's first two novels are among the very small group of war-based literary fiction produced by Generation X
Generation X
Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is the generation born after the Western post–World War II baby boom ended. While there is no universally agreed upon time frame, the term generally includes people born from the early 1960's through the early 1980's, usually no later than 1981 or...
. His third novel, titled In Hoboken (2008), is a departure from the first two, centered on a group of young musicians in the mid-1990s, and the mental-health facility where one of them works. Reviewing In Hoboken, critic Paul Constant wrote, "Bauman is an incredible writer. This is one of those books -- like Lethem when he's cooking, say, or Chabon at his most vibrant -- when every line snaps and propels you forward." The covers of Bauman's first two novels carried quotes by Hubert Selby, Jr.
Hubert Selby, Jr.
Hubert "Cubby" Selby, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His best-known novels are Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream . Both novels were later adapted into films within his lifetime....
and Robert Stone, respectively, and although his prose is stylistically different, there are clear parallels in Bauman's work to those writers. Christian Bauman's short essays appeared regularly on National Public Radio's All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
between 2003–2006, as well as occasional longer nonfiction for IdentityTheory.com. Bauman is the creative director of an advertising agency in New York. He regularly updates his personal blog, including posts about progress on two new novels.
Biography
Christian Bauman was born in EastonEaston, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,800 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Northampton County....
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
in 1970. He began grade school while living in Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Doylestown is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 8,380. The borough is the county seat of Bucks County.- History :...
, and moved to Quakertown, New Jersey when he was in the fourth grade. He remained there until he left home at age 17. He graduated from North Hunterdon High School
North Hunterdon High School
North Hunterdon High School is a four-year public high school located in Clinton Township, New Jersey, serving students from six municipalities in northern Hunterdon County as one of two high schools in the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School District...
near Clinton, New Jersey
Clinton, New Jersey
Clinton is a Town in Hunterdon County, New Jersey on the South Branch of the Raritan River. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 2,719....
, in 1988, and did not attend college. His daughter Kristina was also born in 1988. He has a second daughter, Fiona, born in 1999.
Bauman's family traveled a great deal around North America and Europe when he was a child. The family spent a year in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
in 1983-84, when Bauman would have been in 8th grade. Bauman was raised by his stepfather (a philosophy professor) and mother (a physician); his biological father was only an occasional presence in his life and spent a year in prison when Bauman was a child. In a 2003 interview with Terry Gross
Terry Gross
Terry Gross is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview format radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed throughout the United States by National Public Radio....
on NPR's Fresh Air
Fresh Air
Fresh Air is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States. The show is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its longtime host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 450 stations and claimed 4.5 million listeners. The show...
Bauman said his childhood was not a particularly happy one. In a 2008 public radio interview with Vin Scelsa
Vin Scelsa
Vincent Anthony Scelsa, better known as "Vin," was born on December 12, 1947 in Bayonne, New Jersey. He is the host of a freeform radio show known as Idiot's Delight....
, he stated he is now estranged from almost all of his family.
The subject matter of Christian Bauman's first two novels was drawn from his experiences as a US Army soldier. He joined the army in 1991, at age 21, and remained in for four years. He was a member of the small army boat field (Army Waterborne), and served in Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
in 1992-93 (on an LCM-8
LCM-8
The LCM-8 is a river boat and mechanized landing craft used by the United States Navy and Army during the Vietnam War and subsequent operations. They are currently used by governments and private organizations throughout the world. The acronym stands for "Landing Craft Mechanized, Mark 8...
), and Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
in 1994 (on the LSV-1). In both cases, Bauman was among the first American troops in the deployment—within the opening weeks of the Somalia mission, and within the first hour of the Haiti occupation.
Following his honorable discharge in 1995, Bauman spent the next few years writing and playing guitar on the North American folk circuit, both alone and as part of the group Camp Hoboken (which also included folksingers Gregg Cagno
Gregg Cagno
Gregg Cagno is an American songwriter and touring performer in the singer/songwriter and folk genres. -Career:Born in 1969, Gregg grew up in Clinton, New Jersey, and now lives in New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is a 2006 ASCAP award winner in the folk category, and was a finalist in the Kerrville Folk...
and Linda Sharar
Linda Sharar
Linda Sharar is an American folk singer/songwriter. She began singing, playing guitar, and writing songs as a teenager, inspired by James Taylor and Neil Young. While attending college at the University of Virginia and playing soccer for the school, she performed at open mikes in Charlottesville,...
in its ranks). Christian was frequently an opener for acts including Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, Jack Hardy
Jack Hardy (singer-songwriter)
John Studebaker "Jack" Hardy was an American lyrical singer-songwriter and playwright based in Greenwich Village, who was influential as a writer, performer, and mentor in the North American and European folk music scenes for decades...
, John Gorka
John Gorka
John Gorka is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement."-Biography:...
, Odetta
Odetta
Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...
, Cheryl Wheeler
Cheryl Wheeler
Cheryl Wheeler is an American singer-songwriter of contemporary folk music, based in New England. To date, she has recorded several folk albums, and has toured extensively throughout the United States....
, and Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor is an American singer-songwriter, born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He attended the Westtown School in Pennsylvania...
, at venues like Godfrey Daniels, Passim, Eddie's Attic
Eddie's Attic
Eddie's Attic is a music club in Decatur, Georgia. Founded in 1992 by Eddie Owen, it is a venue for both local musical talent and musicians of some acclaim who often got their start in the Atlanta area. Artists who developed their fanbase at Eddie's Attic include Shawn Mullins, Sugarland, Indigo...
, The Iron Horse
The Iron Horse
The Iron Horse is an American Western television series that appeared on ABC from 1966 to 1968. It featured Dale Robertson as fictional gambler-turned-railroad baron Ben Calhoun...
, and Freight & Salvage. This time period serves as the basis of Bauman's third novel, In Hoboken.
Bauman wrote both songs and short stories during the 1990s. Some of the songs (including one called "Kismaayo", written in Mogadishu and mailed back to Jack Hardy
Jack Hardy (singer-songwriter)
John Studebaker "Jack" Hardy was an American lyrical singer-songwriter and playwright based in Greenwich Village, who was influential as a writer, performer, and mentor in the North American and European folk music scenes for decades...
, who then performed it at the Bottom Line
Bottom Line
The Bottom Line was a music venue at 15 West Fourth Street between Mercer Street and Greene Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
) are in the Smithsonian's Folkways
Folkways
Folkways can refer to:*Folkways —theory by the sociologist William Graham Sumner.*Folkways Records—a record label founded by Moe Asch....
Collection of New York's Fast Folk
Fast Folk
Fast Folk Musical Magazine , was a combination magazine and record album published from February 1982 to 1997...
recordings. None of Bauman's short stories from the time have been published. A few small sections of The Ice Beneath You were written in Somalia during Bauman's deployment there, but the majority was penned in 1999-2000; the novel was purchased by Simon & Schuster in 2001 and published in 2002. In his book What Every Person Should Know About War, author Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges
Christopher Lynn Hedges is an American journalist, author, and war correspondent, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies...
called The Ice Beneath You "One of the finest books about life in the American army."
On National Public Radio, the majority of Bauman's commentaries for All Things Considered have been about the four years he was a soldier, but he has also written about his origins as a writer, his daughters, and his time as a touring musician.
Novels
- In Hoboken (Melville House PublishingMelville House PublishingMelville House Publishing is an independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The company was founded in 2001 by the husband and wife team of Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians in Hoboken, New Jersey, a location Johnson jokingly called "the Left Bank" of New York City...
, 2008) - Voodoo Lounge (Simon & Schuster, 2005)
- The Ice Beneath You (Simon & Schuster, 2002)
Writing in collections and other books
- War Is... (Candlewick, 2008); essay titled "Letter to a Young Enlistee"
- Living on the Edge of the World: New Jersey Writers Take On the Garden State (Touchstone, 2007); essay titled "The Commute (Hoboken 1996)"
- Not Like I'm Jealous or Anything: The Jealousy Book (young adult) (Delacorte, 2006); short story written with daughter Kristina Bauman titled "Everyone's Green About Something"
- Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times (Basic Books, 2005); essay titled "Not Fade Away"
- Bauman is credited as a contributor to What Every Person Should Know About War by Chris HedgesChris HedgesChristopher Lynn Hedges is an American journalist, author, and war correspondent, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies...
(Free Press, 2003)
External links
- Official web site
- Bauman's radio essays from NPR's All Things Considered
- 2003 NPR interview with Terry Gross
- 2010, Garrison Keillor detailing Bauman's life on Writer's Almanac, broadcast on his 40th birthday (text and audio)
- 2008 interview with Bookslut.com
- Essay, "Not Fade Away: On Writing and Reading"
- Essay, "The Road to Yountville"
- Essay, "On the Way to CNN"
- 2002 WHYY interview with Marty Moss-Coane
- 2003 feature in The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
- Essay, "Our Father"