Frederick Barthelme
Encyclopedia
Fredrick Barthelme is an American
novelist and short story
author
, well known as one of the seminal writers of minimalist fiction. Alongside his personal publishing history, his position as Director of The Center For Writers at The University of Southern Mississippi
and Editor of the nationally prominent literary journal Mississippi Review (1977 - 2010) have placed him at the forefront of the contemporary American literary scene.
, was a well-known and highly active Modernist
architect in the city. The atmosphere of intellectual and aesthetic vigor encouraged by their father, pervasive in Barthelme family life, is described in Double Down, a memoir co-written by Frederick and his brother, Steven
. His other brothers, Donald
and Peter, emerged from the creative household to become authors as well. Frederick pursued his widely-ranging talents in multiple creative fields, including painting and music: he was a founding member of the avant-garde psychedelic rock
band The Red Krayola. He eventually chose to focus on fiction writing: receiving his M.A. in creative writing
from Johns Hopkins University
, where he studied with the influential novelist John Barth
.
. Along with his reputation as a minimalist, together with writers Raymond Carver
, Ann Beattie
, Amy hempel
, and Mary Robison
, Barthelme's work has also been described by terms such as "dirty realism" and "K-mart realism." He published his first short story
in The New Yorker
, and has claimed that a rotisserie
chicken
helped him understand that he needed to write about ordinary people. He has moved away from the postmodern stylings of his older brother, Donald Barthelme
, though his brother's influence can be seen in his earliest works, Rangoon and War and War.
Barthelme was thirty-three year editor and visionary of Mississippi Review, known for recognizing and publishing once new talents such as Larry Brown
, Curtis Sittenfeld
, Amy Hempel
, and Courtney Eldridge early in their careers. Issues of Mississippi Review have been guest-edited by authors Rick Moody
and Mary Robison
among others.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist and short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, well known as one of the seminal writers of minimalist fiction. Alongside his personal publishing history, his position as Director of The Center For Writers at The University of Southern Mississippi
The University of Southern Mississippi
The University of Southern Mississippi, informally known as Southern Miss, is a large public research university located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States. It is situated north of Gulfport, Mississippi and northeast of New Orleans, Louisiana...
and Editor of the nationally prominent literary journal Mississippi Review (1977 - 2010) have placed him at the forefront of the contemporary American literary scene.
Early life
Barthelme was born in Houston, Texas. His father, Donald Barthelme, Sr.Donald Barthelme (architect)
Donald Barthelme, Sr. was a prominent architect in Houston, Texas, a teacher of architecture as a professor at the University of Houston and Rice University, and the father of novelist Donald Barthelme, Jr.....
, was a well-known and highly active Modernist
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
architect in the city. The atmosphere of intellectual and aesthetic vigor encouraged by their father, pervasive in Barthelme family life, is described in Double Down, a memoir co-written by Frederick and his brother, Steven
Steven Barthelme
Steven Barthelme is the author of numerous short stories and essays. His published works include And He Tells the Little Horse the Whole Story, Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss , and The Early Posthumous Work Steven Barthelme (born 1947) is the author of numerous short stories and...
. His other brothers, Donald
Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston , co-founder of Fiction Donald...
and Peter, emerged from the creative household to become authors as well. Frederick pursued his widely-ranging talents in multiple creative fields, including painting and music: he was a founding member of the avant-garde psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
band The Red Krayola. He eventually chose to focus on fiction writing: receiving his M.A. in creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
from Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, where he studied with the influential novelist John Barth
John Barth
John Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work.-Life:...
.
Style
Barthelme's works are known for their focus on the landscape of the New SouthNew South
New South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a phrase that has been used intermittently since the American Civil War to describe the American South, after 1877. The term "New South" is used in contrast to the Old South of the plantation system of the antebellum period.The term has been used...
. Along with his reputation as a minimalist, together with writers Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
, Ann Beattie
Ann Beattie
Ann Beattie is an American short story writer and novelist. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a PEN/Bernard Malamud Award for excellence in the short story form. Her work has been compared to that of Alice Adams, J.D. Salinger,...
, Amy hempel
Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel is an American short story writer, journalist, and university professor at Brooklyn College.-Life:Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois...
, and Mary Robison
Mary Robison
Mary Cennamo Robison is an American short story writer and novelist. She has published four collections of stories, and four novels, including her 2001 novel Why Did I Ever, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Her most recent novel, released in 2009, is One D.O.A., One...
, Barthelme's work has also been described by terms such as "dirty realism" and "K-mart realism." He published his first short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, and has claimed that a rotisserie
Rotisserie
Rotisserie is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit - a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This method is generally used for cooking large joints of meat or entire animals, such as pigs,...
chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
helped him understand that he needed to write about ordinary people. He has moved away from the postmodern stylings of his older brother, Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston , co-founder of Fiction Donald...
, though his brother's influence can be seen in his earliest works, Rangoon and War and War.
Barthelme was thirty-three year editor and visionary of Mississippi Review, known for recognizing and publishing once new talents such as Larry Brown
Larry Brown (author)
Larry Brown was an American novelist, non-fiction and short story writer. He was a winner of numerous awards including the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for fiction, the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Award, and Mississippi's Governor's Award For Excellence in the Arts...
, Curtis Sittenfeld
Curtis Sittenfeld
Elizabeth Curtis Sittenfeld is an American writer. She is author of three novels: Prep, the tale of a Massachusetts prep school, The Man of My Dreams, a coming-of-age novel and an examination of romantic love, and American Wife, a fictional story loosely based on the life of First Lady Laura...
, Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel is an American short story writer, journalist, and university professor at Brooklyn College.-Life:Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois...
, and Courtney Eldridge early in their careers. Issues of Mississippi Review have been guest-edited by authors Rick Moody
Rick Moody
Rick Moody is an American novelist and short story writer best known for the 1994 novel The Ice Storm, a chronicle of the dissolution of two suburban Connecticut families over Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, which brought widespread acclaim, became a bestseller, and was made into a feature film of...
and Mary Robison
Mary Robison
Mary Cennamo Robison is an American short story writer and novelist. She has published four collections of stories, and four novels, including her 2001 novel Why Did I Ever, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Her most recent novel, released in 2009, is One D.O.A., One...
among others.
Awards
- 1976-77 Eliot Coleman Award for prose from Johns Hopkins University for his short story, “Storyteller.”
- 1979, 1980 National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe 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...
grant - 2004 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionPEN/Faulkner Award for FictionThe PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US $15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US $5000. The foundation brings the winner and runners-up to...
nomination for Elroy Nights.
Story Collections
- Rangoon 1970.
- Moon Deluxe Simon & Schuster, 1983.
- Chroma Simon & Schuster, 1987.
- The Law of Averages: New & Selected Stories Counterpoint, 2000.
Novels (fiction)
- War and War 1971.
- Second Marriage New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984.
- Tracer New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985.
- Two Against One New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.
- Natural Selection New York: Viking, 1989.
- The Brothers New York: Viking, 1993.
- Painted Desert New York: Viking, 1995.
- Bob the Gambler Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1997.
- Elroy Nights Cambridge: Counterpoint, 2003.
- Waveland New York: Doubleday, 2009.
Memoirs (non-fiction)
- (With Steven BarthelmeSteven BarthelmeSteven Barthelme is the author of numerous short stories and essays. His published works include And He Tells the Little Horse the Whole Story, Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss , and The Early Posthumous Work Steven Barthelme (born 1947) is the author of numerous short stories and...
) Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.