7 Author Shoutouts | Authors We Love To Recommend

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Here are 7 Author Shoutouts for this week. Find your favorite author or discover an author whose work you have not yet read.

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Anton Chekhov

Writer and dramatist Anton Chekhov, hailing from Taganrog, Russia, deserves an Author Shoutout. Despite his profession as a medical doctor, Chekhov famously declared, Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. His involvement in the medical field provided him with ample exposure to diverse social classes, ultimately serving as inspiration for his literary creations.

His works, which include The Seagull, Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, and The Cherry Orchard, are widely regarded as modern masterpieces. He introduced innovative techniques in his short stories, such as stream-of-consciousness writing and an absence of moral resolution, influencing many subsequent writers. He passed away at the age of 44 in 1904 due to tuberculosis.

Barbara Tuchman

Historian and writer Barbara Tuchman, born in New York City, deserves an Author Shoutout. She achieved the remarkable feat of winning the Pulitzer Prize twice for General Non-Fiction. In 1963, she received the award for her book The Guns of August, which delves into the initial month of World War I. Then, in 1972, Tuchman was honored again with a Pulitzer for Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45, which explores the period from 1911 to 1945. Additionally, her significant contribution to the field of history is evident in her National Book Award-winning work on the Middle Ages titled A Distant Mirror, published in 1980.

Tuchman’s Law, coined from her writings, asserts that the extent of disaster often appears less overwhelming when examined beyond the confines of historical documentation. In 1989, at the age of 77, she passed away due to stroke-related complications.

Zane Grey

An Author Shoutout to Zane Grey, born in Zanesville, Ohio (a town established by his great-great uncle), who deserves recognition as an author. Despite initially aspiring to be a professional baseball player and attending college on a baseball scholarship, Grey ultimately became a dentist. However, he took up writing to combat his boredom and emerged as a prominent mythmaker of the Old West. With an impressive collection of over 90 books, Grey is widely recognized as one of the most celebrated storytellers of the American frontier.

He was among the initial authors to achieve millionaire status, with more than 100 films adapted from his writings (including those featuring his iconic character, the Lone Ranger). The Zane Grey Theatre aired on CBS for a period of five years, spanning from 1956 to 1961. He passed away at the age of 67 in 1939, due to heart failure.

Langston Hughes

An Author Shoutout to Langston Hughes, born in Joplin, Missouri, who deserves recognition as an esteemed author. While he is commonly linked to New York City and hailed as a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, it is essential to note that he spent his formative years in the Midwest. Raised by his grandmother, who imparted the rich black American oral tradition to him, Hughes developed a deep and enduring sense of racial pride.

Despite facing prejudice throughout his lifetime, he depicted the black experience as a blend of hardships, but also encompassing moments of happiness, music, and laughter, while dismissing the works of fellow black writers and poets who conveyed anger or bitterness towards their heritage. At the age of 65, he passed away due to complications arising from prostate cancer surgery.

James Joyce

James Joyce, born in Dublin, Ireland, deserves an Author Shoutout. He is renowned for his literary masterpieces like Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake. As one of the most influential novelists of modern times, his writings predominantly revolve around his hometown, Dublin, despite residing in foreign lands during his adult years.

He was the oldest among 12 siblings in a wealthy family that later fell into poverty. He gained fame for employing the stream-of-consciousness technique, utilizing a complex and avant-garde style, and challenging societal boundaries through explicit content that led to censorship and obscenity rulings. At the age of 59, he passed away in Zurich after undergoing surgery for a perforated ulcer.

Victor LaValle

Victor LaValle, a New York City native, deserves an Author Shoutout. Coming from a single mother who immigrated from Uganda, LaValle has written multiple novels and a collection of short stories. In 2017, his fantasy-horror novella titled The Ballad of Black Tom received esteemed honors, winning both the British Fantasy Award and the Shirley Jackson Award for best novella. Additionally, his novel The Changeling achieved great success in 2018 by winning the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Locas Award.

The 2019 Bram Stoker Award was won by LaValle’s Destroyer, a graphic novel that reimagines Frankenstein in a contemporary setting. The story centers around an African-American descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, her son who was tragically killed by the police, and the iconic monster from the original novel.

Ben Lerner

An Author Shoutout to Ben Lerner, a native of Topeka, Kansas, who is known for his work in various literary forms such as poetry, novels, essays, and criticism. Throughout his career, he has received prestigious fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations. Notably, Lerner has been recognized as a finalist for esteemed awards including the National Book Award in Poetry and the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. His writings have been featured in renowned publications such as Harper’s, The London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, and The New Yorker.

LitStack considers his 2014 novel 10:04 one of the most beautifully written modern novels.

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