William Kowalski
Encyclopedia
William John Kowalski III (born August 3, 1970 in Parma, Ohio
) is an American
novelist and screenwriter
.
. He attended Erie Day School from 1976–1984, Cathedral Preparatory School for Boys from 1984–85, and McDowell High School from 1985–88, where he played bass
in the rock group Gideon Winter and acted in numerous high school and community theater productions.
Summer Writer's Institute, where he studied under Dr. Ken Schiff (founder of the Institute) and the late W.S. "Jack" Kuniczak. He matriculated at Boston's Emerson College
in 1988, where he majored in Creative Writing, but dropped out in 1989 to devote himself to writing full-time, believing that he was focusing too much on writing at the expense of gaining the life experiences he needed to have something to write about:
and Globe Corner Bookstore.
In 1990, Kowalski matriculated at St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico
, a four-year program whose curriculum consists of the "Great Books
" of Western Civilization, including not only literature, but also philosophy, mathematics, the sciences, music and art. He believes this program made him "more well-rounded, and as a result, a more interesting person...". While at St. John's, he was the first drummer for a swing group called The Swinging Recluses, which was fronted by the late singer Lhasa de Sela
and led by the current Mayor of Annapolis
, Joshua J. Cohen
, who also played lead saxophone. Kowalski graduated in 1994 and entered the teaching profession, leaving it in 1998 after the sale of his first novel to HarperCollins
Publishers.
Kowalski has stated that his literary influences include Ernest Hemingway
and John Irving
, Spanish-language authors Isabel Allende
and Gabriel García Márquez
, and more-populist authors like spy writer John le Carré
, southwestern author Tony Hillerman
and sea-story writer Patrick O'Brian
.
and in the U.K. by Transworld
/Doubleday/Black Swan. Kowalski's fifth novel, The Barrio Kings, was published by Orca Publishers under their Raven imprint in April 2010. His books have appeared in translation and on bestseller lists around the world, including the Times
of London.
review of Eddie’s Bastard, William J. Cobb complemented Kowalski for his style and exuberance but faulted him for making the novel both sentimental and anachronistic. But Los Angeles Times
reviewer Mark Rozzo was more impressed, rejecting the charge of sentimentality and praising the work for its "enviably gentle pacing," "unflappable good nature" and "honeyed glow".
The novel earned Kowalski a place in the Barnes & Noble
Discover Great New Writers program in 1999 and won the 2001 Exclusive Books Boeke Prize
(South Africa), putting his novel in the company of such other well-known novels as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
, The Poisonwood Bible
, Life of Pi
, The Kite Runner
and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
.
His sequel to Eddie’s Bastard, Somewhere South of Here, was described by Elizabeth Judd as being confident and entertaining in the Kerouac
mold, noting Kowalski's "talent for casual invention" and "bravado," even though it never reaches the "deeper truths" of its own story.
.
Parma, Ohio
Parma is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is the largest suburb of Cleveland and the seventh largest city in the state of Ohio...
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
.
Youth
Kowalski is the eldest child of Dr. William John Kowalski, Jr. of Buffalo, N.Y. (born 1942) and Kathleen Emily Siepel of Angola, N.Y. (b. 1942). In 1974, the family moved to Erie, PennsylvaniaErie, Pennsylvania
Erie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...
. He attended Erie Day School from 1976–1984, Cathedral Preparatory School for Boys from 1984–85, and McDowell High School from 1985–88, where he played bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
in the rock group Gideon Winter and acted in numerous high school and community theater productions.
Literary education
Kowalski has said that he realized he wanted to be a writer when he was about six years old, and that he began to pursue that dream soon after. In 1988, Kowalski attended the Mercyhurst CollegeMercyhurst College
Mercyhurst College is a Catholic liberal arts college in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA.-History:On September 20, 1926, Mercyhurst College opened its doors just a few blocks away from the city's southern boundary. It was founded by the Sisters of Mercy of the Erie Diocese, who were led by Mother M. Borgia...
Summer Writer's Institute, where he studied under Dr. Ken Schiff (founder of the Institute) and the late W.S. "Jack" Kuniczak. He matriculated at Boston's Emerson College
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private coeducational university located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of oratory," Emerson is "the only comprehensive college or university in America dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts in a liberal arts...
in 1988, where he majored in Creative Writing, but dropped out in 1989 to devote himself to writing full-time, believing that he was focusing too much on writing at the expense of gaining the life experiences he needed to have something to write about:
"We have far too many writers in America these days who are expert stylists but who really aren't writing about anything. They can write like hell, but they don't have much to say, because they haven't done anything except study writing. As soon as I realized I was in danger of having this happen to me, I dropped out of college.... Life makes writers--nothing else does."As a result, he took a year off from school and worked at two now-defunct Boston bookstores, Avenue Victor Hugo
Avenue Victor-Hugo (Paris)
Avenue Victor-Hugo is an avenue in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It begins at place Charles de Gaulle and ends at place Tattegrain . It is one of the twelve avenues beginning at the Étoile, and the second longest of the twelve, after the avenue des Champs-Élysées...
and Globe Corner Bookstore.
In 1990, Kowalski matriculated at St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, a four-year program whose curriculum consists of the "Great Books
Great Books
Great Books refers primarily to a group of books that tradition, and various institutions and authorities, have regarded as constituting or best expressing the foundations of Western culture ; derivatively the term also refers to a curriculum or method of education based around a list of such books...
" of Western Civilization, including not only literature, but also philosophy, mathematics, the sciences, music and art. He believes this program made him "more well-rounded, and as a result, a more interesting person...". While at St. John's, he was the first drummer for a swing group called The Swinging Recluses, which was fronted by the late singer Lhasa de Sela
Lhasa de Sela
Lhasa de Sela , also known by the mononym Lhasa, was an American-born singer-songwriter who was raised in Mexico and the United States, and divided her adult life between Canada and France...
and led by the current Mayor of Annapolis
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
, Joshua J. Cohen
Joshua J. Cohen
Joshua Jackson Cohen is an American Democratic politician who was elected on Nov. 3, 2009, as mayor of Annapolis. Cohen, a Democrat, gained 46.5 percent of the vote to defeat Republican nominee David Cordle and independent candidate Chris Fox...
, who also played lead saxophone. Kowalski graduated in 1994 and entered the teaching profession, leaving it in 1998 after the sale of his first novel to HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
Publishers.
Kowalski has stated that his literary influences include Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
and John Irving
John Irving
John Winslow Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978...
, Spanish-language authors Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende Llona is a Chilean writer with American citizenship. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts , which have been commercially successful...
and Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
, and more-populist authors like spy writer John le Carré
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
, southwestern author Tony Hillerman
Tony Hillerman
Tony Hillerman was an award-winning American author of detective novels and non-fiction works best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels...
and sea-story writer Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen...
.
Literary career
Kowalski is the author of five works of literary fiction. Eddie’s Bastard (1999), Somewhere South of Here (2001), The Adventures of Flash Jackson (2003), and The Good Neighbor (2004) were all published in the U.S. by HarperCollinsHarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
and in the U.K. by Transworld
Transworld (company)
Transworld Publishers Inc. is a British publishing division of Random House and belongs to Bertelsmann, one of the world's largest media groups. It was established in 1950, and for many years it was the British division of Bantam Books. It publishes fiction and non fiction titles by various...
/Doubleday/Black Swan. Kowalski's fifth novel, The Barrio Kings, was published by Orca Publishers under their Raven imprint in April 2010. His books have appeared in translation and on bestseller lists around the world, including the Times
Times
The Times is a UK daily newspaper, the original English language newspaper titled "Times". Times may also refer to:In newspapers:*The Times , went defunct in 2005*The Times *The Times of Northwest Indiana...
of London.
Eddie's Bastard
In his New York TimesThe New York Times
The 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...
review of Eddie’s Bastard, William J. Cobb complemented Kowalski for his style and exuberance but faulted him for making the novel both sentimental and anachronistic. But Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
reviewer Mark Rozzo was more impressed, rejecting the charge of sentimentality and praising the work for its "enviably gentle pacing," "unflappable good nature" and "honeyed glow".
The novel earned Kowalski a place in the Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
Discover Great New Writers program in 1999 and won the 2001 Exclusive Books Boeke Prize
Exclusive Books Boeke Prize
The Exclusive Books Boeke Prize is a book prize awarded in South Africa, loosely modelled on the United Kingdom's Man Booker Prize, and sponsored by Exclusive Books...
(South Africa), putting his novel in the company of such other well-known novels as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a non-fiction work by John Berendt. Published in 1994, the book was Berendt's first, and became a The New York Times bestseller for 216 weeks following its debut....
, The Poisonwood Bible
The Poisonwood Bible
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver isa bestselling novel about a missionary family, the Prices, who in 1959 move from Georgia to the village of Kilanga in the Belgian Congo, close to the Kwilu River...
, Life of Pi
Life of Pi
Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age...
, The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it is Hosseini's first novel, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 2007....
and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an award-winning crime novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. It is the first book in the trilogy known as the "Millennium series"....
.
His sequel to Eddie’s Bastard, Somewhere South of Here, was described by Elizabeth Judd as being confident and entertaining in the Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
mold, noting Kowalski's "talent for casual invention" and "bravado," even though it never reaches the "deeper truths" of its own story.
Other awards
The Adventures of Flash Jackson was a Literary Guild Alternate Selection in 2003.Personal
Kowalski is married to Alexandra Nedergaard (b. 1968) of Toronto, Ontario. They have two children and currently live in Nova Scotia, where he teaches at Nova Scotia Community CollegeNova Scotia Community College
The Nova Scotia Community College, commonly referred to as the NSCC, is a community college serving the province of Nova Scotia.The college delivers a diverse program of trades, technology, health, human services, applied arts, new media, business administration and adult education through a system...
.