Peter Rock
Encyclopedia
Peter Rock is an American novelist born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah
. He is an associate professor of creative writing
at Reed College
.
He attended Deep Springs College
and received a BA in English
from Yale University
. He was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at the Stanford Writing Program from 1995-1997. The manuscript for his novel This Is the Place won the Henfield Award in 1996. Before joining Reed in 2001, he taught fiction at the University of Pennsylvania
and at San Francisco State University
. He received a National Endowment for the Arts
Fellowship.
In 2010, Rock's novel My Abandonment received an Alex Award by the American Library Association
.
His short stories have appeared in Tin House
, Zoetrope, Polite
, One Story, and other literary magazines. These stories comprise his 2006 release, The Unsettling, a compilation of Rock’s stories.
Rock’s fiction focuses on characters on the fringe of society—outsiders, wanderers—and allows his readers to see into the minds of these otherwise invisible characters.
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. He is an associate professor of 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...
at Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
.
He attended Deep Springs College
Deep Springs College
Deep Springs is a private, all-male , alternative college in Deep Springs, California, in the United States. A two-year college, the institution currently aims for a student body size of 26, though the number is occasionally lower...
and received a BA in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. He was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at the Stanford Writing Program from 1995-1997. The manuscript for his novel This Is the Place won the Henfield Award in 1996. Before joining Reed in 2001, he taught fiction at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and at San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
. He received a 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...
Fellowship.
In 2010, Rock's novel My Abandonment received an Alex Award by the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
.
His short stories have appeared in Tin House
Tin House
Tin House is an American literary magazine and book publisher based in Portland, Oregon and New York City. The Tin House magazine was conceived in the summer of 1998 by Portland publisher Win McCormack. He envisioned a journal that would be graphically appealing and free of the stale substance...
, Zoetrope, Polite
Polite (magazine)
Polite is a semi-regular general interest and humor magazine published in the United States. Its tagline is "Generally interesting."-History:The magazine was founded as a quarterly in August 2005 by college friends Justin Peters and Toby Warner...
, One Story, and other literary magazines. These stories comprise his 2006 release, The Unsettling, a compilation of Rock’s stories.
Rock’s fiction focuses on characters on the fringe of society—outsiders, wanderers—and allows his readers to see into the minds of these otherwise invisible characters.
Books
- My Abandonment - March 2009 (Mariner BooksMariner BooksMariner Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, was established in 1997 as a publisher of fiction, non fiction, and poetry in paperback. Mariner is also the publisher of the Harvest imprint backlist, formerly published by Harcourt Brace/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.-Publisher bibliography:*The...
) - The Unsettling - 2006
- The Bewildered - 2005
- The Ambidextrist - 2004
- Carnival Wolves - 1998
- This is the Place - 1997
External links
- The Peter Rock Project - Web site dedicated to his work.