David Vann is an assistant professor of English at University of San Francisco

University of San Francisco

The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of...

. He teaches creative nonfiction and fiction. He was a Wallace Stegner Fellow

Stegner Fellowship

The Stegner Fellowship program is a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University. The award is named after American Wallace Stegner , an historian, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and Stanford faculty member who founded the university's creative writing program. Ten...

 and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 and is the author of the memoir A Mile Down: The True Story of a Disastrous Career at Sea. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Outside Magazine, Men's Journal, Writer's Digest, and other magazines.

Vann's collection of stories Legend of a Suicide was published in 2008. Vann's own father committed suicide when Vann was 13, an event which the book explores through several fictionalized viewpoints, including the central novella Sukkwan Island. Alexander Linklater of The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

called it "an extraordinary, ground-breaking piece of fiction.". Published as a novel in French by Gallmeister, Sukkwan Island was well received critically in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, where it won the Prix Médicis étranger in 2010.

Works

• 2005 - A Mile Down: The True Story of a Disastrous Career at Sea - autobiographical account of one's sailing experiences
• 2008 - Legend of a Suicide
• 2011 - Caribou Island

Awards

• 2010 - Prix Médicis étranger, Sukkwan Island
• 2007 Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction as part of the 2007 AWP Award Series, for Legend of a Suicide.
• National Endowment for the Arts
  National Endowment for the Arts
  The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
  
  literature grant.

External links

• Author Website
• http://ccragg123.libsyn.com/-legend-of-a-suicide-caribou-island-author-david-vann KGNU Claudia Cragg radio interview with David Vann on 'Caribou Island'