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T. Coraghessan Boyle (also known as T.C. Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948) is a U.S. novelist and short story
Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
 writer. Since the mid 1970s, he has published twelve novels and more than 60 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the author of the best American work of fiction that year....
 in 1988 for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
. He is married with three children. Boyle has been a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private university, nonsectarian, research university located in the University Park, Los Angeles, California neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, California, United States....
 since 1978, when he founded the school's undergraduate creative writing program.

Thomas John Boyle was born December 2, 1948 in Peekskill, New York
Peekskill, New York

Peekskill is a city in Westchester County, New York. It is situated on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from Jones Point, New York....
.






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T. Coraghessan Boyle (also known as T.C. Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948) is a U.S. novelist and short story
Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
 writer. Since the mid 1970s, he has published twelve novels and more than 60 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the author of the best American work of fiction that year....
 in 1988 for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
. He is married with three children. Boyle has been a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private university, nonsectarian, research university located in the University Park, Los Angeles, California neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, California, United States....
 since 1978, when he founded the school's undergraduate creative writing program.

Thomas John Boyle was born December 2, 1948 in Peekskill, New York
Peekskill, New York

Peekskill is a city in Westchester County, New York. It is situated on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from Jones Point, New York....
. He grew up in the small town on the Hudson Valley that he regularly fictionalizes as Peterskill (as in his widely anthologized short story, "Greasy Lake"). Boyle changed his middle name when he was 17 and exclusively used Coraghessan for much of his career, but now also goes by T.C. Boyle.

Boyle earned a BA in English and history from the State University of New York at Potsdam
State University of New York at Potsdam

The State University of New York at Potsdam, also known as SUNY Potsdam, is a public university located in the Potsdam , New York in St....
 in 1968, after which he taught for four years at Lakeland High School (Shrub Oak, New York)
Lakeland High School (Shrub Oak, New York)

Lakeland High School is located in Shrub Oak, New York, New York. As of 2007, the school principal is Mrs. Cheryl Champ. Lakeland High School is part of the Lakeland Central School District, and is a sister school to Walter Panas High School of Cortlandt Manor, New York....
, the school in his home town where his mother worked as head secretary and his father as a janitor. After being accepted to the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1972, Boyle served as fiction editor for The Iowa Review, and in 1977 received a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1988 he received a Guggenheim. Boyle has since received many literary awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN/Malamud Prize, the PEN/West Literary Prize, the Commonwealth Gold Medal for Literature, the National Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Prose Excellence. His short fiction has won him six O. Henry Awards for short fiction, and multiple appearances in the Best American Short Story awards.

Boyle earned his MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974 and his Ph.D. degree in 19th century British literature in 1977. He has been a member of the English Department at the University of Southern California since 1978, and currently lives in Santa Barbara with his wife and three children.

Many of Boyle's novels and short stories explore the Baby Boom generation, its appetites, joys, and addictions. Boyle's themes, such as the often-misguided efforts of the male hero and the slick appeal of the anti-hero, appear alongside brutal satire, humor, and magic realism. Boyle's fiction also explores the ruthlessness and the unpredictability of nature and the toll human society unwittingly takes on the environment. Boyle's work has been compared to Mark Twain's for its mixture of humor and social exploration.

His novels include World's End (1987, winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction); The Road to Wellville (1993); and The Tortilla Curtain (1995, winner of France's Prix Medicis Etranger). Boyle has published eight collections of short stories, including Descent of Man (1979), Greasy Lake (1985), If the River was Whiskey (1989), and Without a Hero (1994). His short stories regularly appear in the major American magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire magazine, The Atlantic Monthly and Playboy.

Bibliography


Novels


  • Water Music
    Water Music (novel)

    Water Music is the first novel by T. C. Boyle, first published in 1982 in literature. The novel follows the adventures of Ned Rise, a criminal, and Mungo_Park_, an explorer....
     (1982
    1982 in literature

    The year 1982 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • Budding Prospects
    Budding Prospects

    Budding Prospects is a 1984 novel by T. C. Boyle about a loser who plans to get rich by illegally growing marijuana....
     (1984
    1984 in literature

    The year 1984 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • World's End
    World's End (novel)

    World's End is a 1987 in literature novel by T. C. Boyle....
     (1987
    1987 in literature

    The year 1987 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • East Is East
    East Is East (novel)

    East is East is a 1990 novel by United States author T. Coraghessan Boyle....
     (1990
    1990 in literature

    The year 1990 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • The Road to Wellville
    The Road to Wellville

    The Road to Wellville is a 1993 novel by United States author T. Coraghessan Boyle. Set in Battle Creek, Michigan during the early days of breakfast cereals, the story includes a historical fictionalization of John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes....
     (1993
    1993 in literature

    The year 1993 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • The Tortilla Curtain
    The Tortilla Curtain

    The Tortilla Curtain is a novel by U.S. author T.C. Boyle about middle-class moral code, illegal immigration, xenophobia, poverty, and environmentalism....
     (1995
    1995 in literature

    The year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • Riven Rock
    Riven Rock

    Riven Rock is a 1998 novel by United States author T. Coraghessan Boyle. It concerns the life of Stanley McCormick, a son of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaper, and Stanley's devoted wife, Katherine McCormick, daughter of Wirt Dexter, a prominent Chicago lawyer....
     (1998
    1998 in literature

    The year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • A Friend of the Earth
    A Friend of the Earth

    T.C. Boyle's novel A Friend of the Earth is a story of environmental destruction. The novel is set in 2025; as a result of global warming and the greenhouse effect, the climate has drastically changed, and, accordingly, biodiversity is a thing of the past....
     (2000
    2000 in literature

    The year 2000 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • Drop City
    Drop City (novel)

    Drop City is a 2003 novel by United States author T. Coraghessan Boyle. The novel describes the social evolution of a group of free spirits, not unlike the inhabitants of the real Drop City in Colorado....
     (2003
    2003 in literature

    The year 2003 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • The Inner Circle
    The Inner Circle (novel)

    The Inner Circle is a novel by T. C. Boyle first published in 2004 in literature about the development of sexology in the United States and about Alfred Kinsey's rise to fame during the late 1940s and early 1950s as seen through the eyes of one of his loyal assistants....
     (2004
    2004 in literature

    The year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • Talk Talk
    Talk Talk (novel)

    Talk Talk is a novel by T. C. Boyle first published in 2006 in literature, about a young deafness woman who becomes the victim of a credit card fraud and identity theft....
     (2006
    2006 in literature

    The year 2006 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • The Women (2009
    2009 in literature

    Books...
    )


Short story collections


  • Descent of Man (1979
    1979 in literature

    The year 1979 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • Greasy Lake & Other Stories
    Greasy Lake & Other Stories

    The collection reflects the fears, anxieties and issues of America in the 1980?s, especially in regard to the fear of a nuclear holocaust. ?One of the astonishing things about looking back at old stories are their references to then-current political and social events,? he said in the forums on his personal website....
     (1985
    1985 in literature

    The year 1985 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • If the River Was Whiskey (1989
    1989 in literature

    The year 1989 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • Without a Hero (1994
    1994 in literature

    The year 1994 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • T.C. Boyle Stories (1998
    1998 in literature

    The year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    ) - collects the four earlier volumes of short fiction, as well as seven previously uncollected stories.
  • After the Plague (2001
    2001 in literature

    The year 2001 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • Tooth and Claw (2005
    2005 in literature

    The year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
    )
  • The Human Fly (2005) (young adult literature
    Young adult literature

    Young-adult fiction is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents, roughly between the ages of 12 and 18....
    )
  • Wild Child & Other Stories (2010)


Chronology in Boyle's works

 TimeSettingHistorical personage in the novel
World's End
World's End (novel)

World's End is a 1987 in literature novel by T. C. Boyle....
 (1987
1987 in literature

The year 1987 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		Late 17th century, 1949 and 1968Northern Westchester County
Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a primarily suburban Political subdivisions of New York State#County located in the U.S. state of New York with about 950,000 residents....
 near Peekskill, New York
Peekskill, New York

Peekskill is a city in Westchester County, New York. It is situated on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from Jones Point, New York....
-----
Water Music
Water Music (novel)

Water Music is the first novel by T. C. Boyle, first published in 1982 in literature. The novel follows the adventures of Ned Rise, a criminal, and Mungo_Park_, an explorer....
 (1982
1982 in literature

The year 1982 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		1795London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
, and Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 (source of the Niger
Niger River

The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about 4180 km . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea....
)		Mungo Park
Mungo Park (explorer)

Mungo Park was a Scotland explorer of the African continent. He was credited as being the first Westerner to encounter the Niger River....
The Road to Wellville
The Road to Wellville

The Road to Wellville is a 1993 novel by United States author T. Coraghessan Boyle. Set in Battle Creek, Michigan during the early days of breakfast cereals, the story includes a historical fictionalization of John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes....
 (1993
1993 in literature

The year 1993 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		1907Battle Creek, Michigan
Battle Creek, Michigan

Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, Michigan, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River and Battle Creek Rivers....
John Harvey Kellogg
John Harvey Kellogg

John Harvey Kellogg was an United States medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan, who ran a Sanatorium using holistic medicine methods, with a particular focus on nutrition, enemas and exercise....
Riven Rock
Riven Rock

Riven Rock is a 1998 novel by United States author T. Coraghessan Boyle. It concerns the life of Stanley McCormick, a son of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaper, and Stanley's devoted wife, Katherine McCormick, daughter of Wirt Dexter, a prominent Chicago lawyer....
 (1998
1998 in literature

The year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		1905-1925Montecito
Montecito, California

Montecito is a census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California. As of the 2000 census, the CDP population was 10,000, although the boundaries are ill-defined....
, Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County, California

Santa Barbara County is a county located on the Pacific Ocean coast of the Southern California portion of the U.S. state of California, just west of Ventura County, California....
Stanley McCormick, Katharine McCormick
Katharine McCormick

Katharine Dexter McCormick was a USA biology, women's suffrage, philanthropy and, after her husband's death, heir to a substantial part of the Cyrus McCormick fortune....
The Women
The Women

The Women is a comedy of manners by Clare Boothe Luce.The play is an acidic commentary on the pampered lives and power struggles of various wealthy New York City socialites and up-and-comers and the gossip that propels and damages their relationships....
 (2009
2009 in literature

Books...
)		Early 20th century up to 1930sWisconsin
Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. state in the United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States. It borders two of the five Great Lakes and four U.S....
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an United States architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works....
The Inner Circle
The Inner Circle (novel)

The Inner Circle is a novel by T. C. Boyle first published in 2004 in literature about the development of sexology in the United States and about Alfred Kinsey's rise to fame during the late 1940s and early 1950s as seen through the eyes of one of his loyal assistants....
 (2004
2004 in literature

The year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		1940s-50sBloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, Indiana

Bloomington is a city and the county seat of Monroe County, Indiana in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. According to the United States Census, 2000, the city population was 69,291 and its Bloomington, Indiana metropolitan area had a population of 175,506....
Alfred Kinsey
Alfred Kinsey

Alfred Charles Kinsey , was an United States biologist and professor of entomology and zoology, who in 1947 founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University , now called the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction....
Drop City
Drop City (novel)

Drop City is a 2003 novel by United States author T. Coraghessan Boyle. The novel describes the social evolution of a group of free spirits, not unlike the inhabitants of the real Drop City in Colorado....
 (2003
2003 in literature

The year 2003 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		1970California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
, Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
-----
Budding Prospects
Budding Prospects

Budding Prospects is a 1984 novel by T. C. Boyle about a loser who plans to get rich by illegally growing marijuana....
 (1984
1984 in literature

The year 1984 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		1980sCalifornia
-----
East Is East
East Is East (novel)

East is East is a 1990 novel by United States author T. Coraghessan Boyle....
 (1990
1990 in literature

The year 1990 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		1980sGeorgia
Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a U.S. state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against United Kingdom rule in the American Revolution....
 (American South)		Hu Tu Mei
The Tortilla Curtain
The Tortilla Curtain

The Tortilla Curtain is a novel by U.S. author T.C. Boyle about middle-class moral code, illegal immigration, xenophobia, poverty, and environmentalism....
 (1995
1995 in literature

The year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		1990sSouthern California
Southern California

Southern California, or So Cal, is defined as the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population centers on the cities of Los Angeles, California, San Diego, California, San Bernardino, California, and Riverside, California....
-----
Talk Talk (2006
2006 in literature

The year 2006 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		2000sCalifornia and New York state
-----
A Friend of the Earth
A Friend of the Earth

T.C. Boyle's novel A Friend of the Earth is a story of environmental destruction. The novel is set in 2025; as a result of global warming and the greenhouse effect, the climate has drastically changed, and, accordingly, biodiversity is a thing of the past....
 (2000
2000 in literature

The year 2000 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
)		late 1980s; 2025-2026California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
, Oregon
Oregon

Oregon is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The area was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before the arrival of traders, explorers and settlers....
-----


See also

  • Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson
    Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson

    Amy Grossberg delivered a baby at a Choice Hotels in Newark, Delaware, on November 1996, assisted only by her then-boyfriend Brian Peterson, who later threw the baby into a dumpster....


External links

  • (in English, French, German, and Dutch).
  • (photo by Don Zirulnik)