Here are 7 author shoutouts for this week. Find your favorite author or discover an author you have not yet read.
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This Week’s Author Shoutouts
Ezra Pound
Poet Ezra Pound, born in Hailey, Idaho, deserves an Author Shoutout. He recognized his calling as a poet early on, attending university at the age of 15 and later relocating abroad at 23. During his time in London and Paris, he served as an editor for numerous literary magazines, supporting the rise of notable figures such as TS Eliot, James Joyce, Robert Frost, and Ernest Hemingway. Pound’s own poetry embraced a modernist aesthetic, rejecting ornate language and exaggerations in favor of clarity and simplicity.
He passed away in 1972 at the age of 87 in Venice, having led a complex and contentious life, which included being accused of treason in the United States and enduring 12 years of institutionalization in a mental hospital.
Neal Stephenson
An Author Shoutout to speculative fiction writer Neal Stephenson, a writer and game designer, who hails from Fort Meade, Maryland. Born into a family of scientists and engineers, his literary creations, including Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, Seveneyes, and The Baroque Cycle, exhibit intricate storylines that incorporate a wide range of technological elements and multifaceted characters. Alongside sharp pop-culture imagery and effortlessly cool dialogue, Stephenson’s works captivate readers.
He has been awarded multiple accolades for his 18 novels, which include a Hugo Award, an Arthur C. Clarke Award, and several Locus awards. At present, he resides in Seattle, Washington.
Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane, a native of Newark, New Jersey, and the son of a Methodist minister, deserves an Author Shoutout as an esteemed author. In a remarkably short span of four years, he showcased his prolific writing skills by creating an impressive body of work. This included five novels, two volumes of poetry, three collections of short stories, two books focused on war narratives, and numerous other pieces of short fiction.
Renowned for his masterpiece, The Red Badge of Courage, he achieved celebrity status until his untimely demise in 1900, succumbing to tuberculosis. His captivating literary prowess aside, his somewhat scandalous way of life, although considered tame by today’s standards, served as prime gossip material as the century drew to a close. Remarkably, he passed away at a mere 28 years of age.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Science fiction and fantasy writer Lois McMaster Bujold, born in Columbus, Ohio, deserves an Author Shoutout. This esteemed author has been honored with four Hugo Awards for Best Novel, an achievement surpassed only by Robert Heinlein. Additionally, Bujold received a Hugo Award for her novella, The Mountains of Mourning. Her father, renowned as the editor of Nondestructive Testing Handbook (often known as McMaster on Materials), instilled in her a deep passion for reading.
Renowned for her three literary collections, namely, the Vorkosigan Saga, the Chalion Series, and the Sharing Knife Series, she presently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Terrence McNally
Playwright Terrence McNally, born in St. Petersburg, Florida, deserves an Author Shoutout. His achievements are remarkable, encompassing 33 plays, 9 musicals, 3 operas, and 7 soundtracks. McNally’s accolades include four Tony Awards (two for Best Play – Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1994 and Master Class in 1995, and two for Best Book for a Musical – Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1992 and Ragtime in 1996), an Emmy Award, four Drama Desk Awards, and two Obie Awards, among others.
He debuted his initial play in 1964, while his production, Mothers and Sons, premiered in 2013 and later transferred to Broadway in 2014. In 1996, he was honored with induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame. He passed away at the age of 81 in 2020 as a result of complications stemming from COVID.
M.T. Anderson
M. T. Anderson, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, deserves an Author Shoutout. With an engineer and an Episcopal priest as parents, Anderson is known for crafting books that challenge young readers to broaden their perceptions and expectations. His YA novel, Feed, earned him the LA Times Book Award and made him a finalist for the National Book Award. Furthermore, his historical novel, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume 1: The Pox Party, not only won the National Book Award but also received recognition as an honor book for the Michael L. Printz Award in consecutive years for its second volume.
His novel from 2015, titled Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad, reached the final round of consideration for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Furthermore, his book Landscape with Invisible Hand was recently adapted into a significant film. These accomplishments are only a glimpse of his extensive body of work.
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard, born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, deserves an Author Shoutout both as an actor and a writer. Not only was he romantically associated with Patti Smith and later Jessica Lange, but he also garnered acclaim as a playwright. Shepard is the recipient of multiple Obie Awards for his exceptional works such as Fool for Love, True West, and Buried Child. All three of these plays were even nominated for Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, with Buried Child winning the prestigious honor in 1979. Additionally, Shepard demonstrated his skills as a screenwriter, short story writer, and director.
In 2009 he received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a master American dramatist. He died in 2017 from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; he was 73.
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You can find the books relating to our Author Shoutouts at our bookshop, on our list of LitStack Author Shoutouts.
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