Richard Grayson
Encyclopedia
Richard Grayson is a writer
, political activist and performance artist, most noted for his books of short stories
and his satiric
runs for public office.
Grayson's fiction is largely autobiographical
, or pseudo-autobiographical, and his early work heavily influenced by the metafiction
ists of the 1970s, such as John Barth
, Donald Barthelme
, Ronald Sukenick
, and his mentor, Jonathan Baumbach, who headed the Brooklyn College MFA program in fiction and was one of the founders of the publishing cooperative The Fiction Collective, for which Grayson worked as an editorial assistant in the 1970s.
, and attended New York
public schools and the City University of New York
, receiving a Master of Fine Arts
degree in Creative Writing
from Brooklyn College
, where he was also an undergraduate. His first stories started appearing in literary magazine
s in the mid-1970s, and in 1979, his first book-length collection of short stories, With Hitler in New York, was published. In the same year Grayson, active in liberal politics
since his teenage years, registered with the Federal Election Commission
(FEC) as a candidate for Vice President of the United States
, receiving coverage for his humorous "campaign" in The New York Times
and various other media outlets.
He began a long career in higher education as an adjunct lecturer in English
at Long Island University
in 1975, and has taught English and other subjects at numerous colleges and high schools in New York, Florida
, and Arizona
. For a number of years Grayson divided his time between New York City
and South Florida, where many of his stories are set.
By 1979, Grayson had over 125 stories published in magazines and anthologies. He remained a prolific writer in the early 1980s, when several short story collections came out in quick succession: Lincoln's Doctor's Dog (1982), Eating at Arby's (1982), and I Brake for Delmore Schwartz (1983). Grayson's stories from this period characterized by an extreme self-consciousness, an appreciation of wordplay and jokes, and confessions of ineptitude on the part of the author. Most of these stories originally appeared in journals such as Transatlantic Review
, Texas Quarterly, California Quarterly, and Epoch.
(FEC) to run for President of the United States
as a Democrat
. Over the next year, the exploits in his humorous campaign to replace President Ronald Reagan
were widely covered by newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Perhaps his best-known remark, quoted in Time
, USA Today
, and The Wall Street Journal
, was his explanation of why he asked the actress Jane Wyman
, star of the then-current nighttime soap opera
Falcon Crest
and the former wife of the incumbent President, to be his Vice Presidential running mate: "She already has experience in dumping Ronald Reagan." Other platform planks in the Grayson campaign included making El Salvador
the 51st state
and moving the U.S. capital
to Davenport, Iowa
.
For the next few years, Grayson spent less time on literary fiction and more on what he called "publicity art." In 1982, he received 26% of the vote in an election for a town council seat in Davie, Florida
, where he worked as an English instructor at Broward Community College
; his sole campaign promise was to give the town's many horses the right to vote. Over the years, Grayson created numerous political action committee
s, officially registered with the (FEC); these included the Committee for Immediate Nuclear War, the Council of Armed Rabbis, and committees to draft actor Burt Reynolds
, designer Gloria Vanderbilt
, and socialite Claus Von Bulow
as candidates for the U.S. Senate. Grayson also worked as a humor columnist
for the Hollywood, Florida
, newspaper The Sun-Tattler and published in People Magazine a satirical article alerting readers to the perils of a developing "celebrity shortage."
and Fort Lauderdale for Gainesville, Florida
, where he attended law school at the University of Florida
. After graduating with high honors, Grayson joined the research faculty of the law school as a staff attorney in social policy at the Center for Governmental Responsibility. Grayson, who had also worked as a computer educator in the Miami-Dade
public schools in the 1970s, concentrated his legal research on educational technology
and the new field of cyberlaw, but his work in the think tank
also dealt with other issues, including health care
, drug legalization, and electoral reform
.
Around this time, Grayson began contributing op-ed
articles to Florida newspapers, expressing his opinions on issues before the state legislature. In 1994, he ran as a write-in candidate
for the United States Congress
in the St. Petersburg
/Clearwater
area against Republican
Michael Bilirakis
, who otherwise would have been unopposed. Although lacing his "campaign" with humorous sound bites, Grayson also stressed his support of abortion rights, universal health care
, and a higher minimum wage
.
, where Gainesville is located. Grayson was a member of the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Council of North Central Florida and its political action committee, which in subsequent years managed to help elect enough pro-gay candidates to the Gainesville city commission to pass local gay rights legislation.
Grayson's experience as a lawyer and gay activist informed some of the stories in his 1996 collection, I Survived Caracas Traffic, whose title story Kirkus Reviews
called "a resonant meditation on the themes of relationships, AIDS
, and mortality
." Another story in the same volume is "Twelve Step Barbie
," which, along with "With Hitler
in New York
" is probably the author's best-known work and the subject of academic criticism.
After leaving Gainesville and the University of Florida Law School in 1997, Grayson spent time in different parts of the country, writing what would become the stories in his 2000 book The Silicon Valley Diet, which featured gay protagonists living in the different places where Grayson had resided: his native New York City, northeast Wyoming
, Silicon Valley
, and various parts of Florida. Less experimental and more realistic, the new stories dealt with the impact of the computer culture, interracial friendships between gay men, and topics related to food and dieting. (In the early 1990s Grayson lost over forty pounds and became a vegetarian.)
Except for one year when he taught English at Arizona State University
and other schools in the Phoenix
area, Grayson spent most of his time after 1999 in South Florida, where he was a visiting professor of undergraduate legal studies at Nova Southeastern University
and director of academic support at the university's law school. Grayson later returned to Phoenix to take a position as an English teacher at a private high school.
," a recurring feature on the website of McSweeney's, covered his 2004 campaign as the sole opponent to Rep. Ander Crenshaw
, a Jacksonville Republican
, and brought him a new audience.
More recently, Grayson published two short story collections almost simultaneously. The more experimental book was Highly Irregular Stories (2006), which Kirkus Discoveries called "an eclectic anthology of intriguing short stories...Grayson’s stories here recall no one so much as Richard Brautigan, who walked a similar line between wit and warmth in his more eccentric novels." The second volume, And to Think That He Kissed Him on Lorimer Street, which Kirkus Discoveries termed "[a] funny, odd, somehow familiar and fully convincing fictional world," featured more representational and autobiographical stories, mostly set in the author's native Brooklyn.
While the literary reference volume Contemporary Literary Criticism has called Grayson "a marginal figure in contemporary American fiction," it also noted that "he and his fictional persona seem quite aware of this fact" and that "[t]aken as a body of work, Grayson's short fiction ultimately appears to be one ongoing, career-long writing project, focused always on the effects of contemporary culture on the self."
In 2010, Grayson ran as the Green Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona's 6th Congressional District and finished fourth.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, political activist and performance artist, most noted for his books of short stories
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
and his satiric
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
runs for public office.
Grayson's fiction is largely autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, or pseudo-autobiographical, and his early work heavily influenced by the metafiction
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
ists of the 1970s, such as 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:...
, 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...
, Ronald Sukenick
Ronald Sukenick
Ronald Sukenick was an American writer and literary theorist.-Life:Sukenick studied at Cornell University, and wrote his doctoral thesis on Wallace Stevens, at Brandeis University ....
, and his mentor, Jonathan Baumbach, who headed the Brooklyn College MFA program in fiction and was one of the founders of the publishing cooperative The Fiction Collective, for which Grayson worked as an editorial assistant in the 1970s.
Early career
Grayson was born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, and attended New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
public schools and the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
, receiving a Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
degree 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 Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
, where he was also an undergraduate. His first stories started appearing in literary magazine
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...
s in the mid-1970s, and in 1979, his first book-length collection of short stories, With Hitler in New York, was published. In the same year Grayson, active in liberal politics
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
since his teenage years, registered with the Federal Election Commission
Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act...
(FEC) as a candidate for Vice President of the United States
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
, receiving coverage for his humorous "campaign" in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and various other media outlets.
He began a long career in higher education as an adjunct lecturer 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...
at Long Island University
Long Island University
Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...
in 1975, and has taught English and other subjects at numerous colleges and high schools in New York, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. For a number of years Grayson divided his time between New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and South Florida, where many of his stories are set.
By 1979, Grayson had over 125 stories published in magazines and anthologies. He remained a prolific writer in the early 1980s, when several short story collections came out in quick succession: Lincoln's Doctor's Dog (1982), Eating at Arby's (1982), and I Brake for Delmore Schwartz (1983). Grayson's stories from this period characterized by an extreme self-consciousness, an appreciation of wordplay and jokes, and confessions of ineptitude on the part of the author. Most of these stories originally appeared in journals such as Transatlantic Review
Transatlantic Review
Transatlantic Review was a literary journal founded and edited by Joseph F. McCrindle in 1959, and published at first in Rome, then London and New York...
, Texas Quarterly, California Quarterly, and Epoch.
Political activity
In 1983, Grayson filed with the Federal Election CommissionFederal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act...
(FEC) to run for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
as a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. Over the next year, the exploits in his humorous campaign to replace President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
were widely covered by newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Perhaps his best-known remark, quoted in Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, and The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, was his explanation of why he asked the actress Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades...
, star of the then-current nighttime soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced....
and the former wife of the incumbent President, to be his Vice Presidential running mate: "She already has experience in dumping Ronald Reagan." Other platform planks in the Grayson campaign included making El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
the 51st state
51st state
The 51st state, in United States political discourse, is a phrase that refers to areas either seriously or derisively considered candidates for addition to the 50 states already part of the United States. Before 1959, when Alaska and Hawaii joined the U.S., the term "the 49th state" was used...
and moving the U.S. capital
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to Davenport, Iowa
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...
.
For the next few years, Grayson spent less time on literary fiction and more on what he called "publicity art." In 1982, he received 26% of the vote in an election for a town council seat in Davie, Florida
Davie, Florida
Davie is a town in Broward County, Florida, United States. The town's population was 91,992 at the 2010 census.- History :Davie was founded by Jake Tannebaum and Tamara Toussaint. The original name of the town was Zona. In 1909 R.P. Davie assisted then Governor Broward by draining the swamplands...
, where he worked as an English instructor at Broward Community College
Broward Community College
Broward College, previously known as "Broward Community College", is a state college in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., and part of the Florida College System. It was established in 1959 as part of a move to broaden Florida's two-year community college system...
; his sole campaign promise was to give the town's many horses the right to vote. Over the years, Grayson created numerous political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
s, officially registered with the (FEC); these included the Committee for Immediate Nuclear War, the Council of Armed Rabbis, and committees to draft actor Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
, designer Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
, and socialite Claus Von Bulow
Claus von Bülow
Claus von Bülow is a British socialite of German and Danish ancestry. He was accused of the attempted murder of his wife Sunny von Bülow by administering an insulin overdose in 1980 but his conviction in the first trial was reversed and he was found not guilty in both his retrials.-Biography:Born...
as candidates for the U.S. Senate. Grayson also worked as a humor columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
for the Hollywood, Florida
Hollywood, Florida
-Demographics:As of 2000, there were 59,673 households out of which 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.5% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.2% were non-families. 34.4% of all households were made up of...
, newspaper The Sun-Tattler and published in People Magazine a satirical article alerting readers to the perils of a developing "celebrity shortage."
Return to academia
In 1991, Grayson left his homes in ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and Fort Lauderdale for Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
, where he attended law school at the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
. After graduating with high honors, Grayson joined the research faculty of the law school as a staff attorney in social policy at the Center for Governmental Responsibility. Grayson, who had also worked as a computer educator in the Miami-Dade
Miami-Dade County, Florida
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the state of Florida. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 2,496,435, making it the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States...
public schools in the 1970s, concentrated his legal research on educational technology
Educational technology
Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources." The term educational technology is often associated with, and encompasses, instructional theory and...
and the new field of cyberlaw, but his work in the think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
also dealt with other issues, including health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
, drug legalization, and electoral reform
Electoral reform
Electoral reform is change in electoral systems to improve how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of:...
.
Around this time, Grayson began contributing op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
articles to Florida newspapers, expressing his opinions on issues before the state legislature. In 1994, he ran as a write-in candidate
Write-in candidate
A write-in candidate is a candidate in an election whose name does not appear on the ballot, but for whom voters may vote nonetheless by writing in the person's name. Some states and local jurisdictions allow a voter to affix a sticker with a write-in candidate's name on it to the ballot in lieu...
for the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
in the St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
/Clearwater
Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...
area against Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Michael Bilirakis
Michael Bilirakis
Michael Bilirakis , American politician, was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1983 until 2007, representing the 9th District of Florida....
, who otherwise would have been unopposed. Although lacing his "campaign" with humorous sound bites, Grayson also stressed his support of abortion rights, universal health care
Universal health care
Universal health care is a term referring to organized health care systems built around the principle of universal coverage for all members of society, combining mechanisms for health financing and service provision.-History:...
, and a higher minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
.
Gay rights activism
Grayson also worked in the unsuccessful 1994 campaign to defeat an anti-gay rights referendum in Alachua County, FloridaAlachua County, Florida
Alachua County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. The U.S. Census Bureau 2006 estimate for the county is 227,120. Its county seat is Gainesville, Florida. Alachua County is the home of the University of Florida and is also known for its diverse culture, local music, and artisans...
, where Gainesville is located. Grayson was a member of the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Council of North Central Florida and its political action committee, which in subsequent years managed to help elect enough pro-gay candidates to the Gainesville city commission to pass local gay rights legislation.
Grayson's experience as a lawyer and gay activist informed some of the stories in his 1996 collection, I Survived Caracas Traffic, whose title story Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...
called "a resonant meditation on the themes of relationships, AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, and mortality
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
." Another story in the same volume is "Twelve Step Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
," which, along with "With Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
" is probably the author's best-known work and the subject of academic criticism.
After leaving Gainesville and the University of Florida Law School in 1997, Grayson spent time in different parts of the country, writing what would become the stories in his 2000 book The Silicon Valley Diet, which featured gay protagonists living in the different places where Grayson had resided: his native New York City, northeast Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
, and various parts of Florida. Less experimental and more realistic, the new stories dealt with the impact of the computer culture, interracial friendships between gay men, and topics related to food and dieting. (In the early 1990s Grayson lost over forty pounds and became a vegetarian.)
Except for one year when he taught English at Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
and other schools in the Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
area, Grayson spent most of his time after 1999 in South Florida, where he was a visiting professor of undergraduate legal studies at Nova Southeastern University
Nova Southeastern University
Nova Southeastern University, commonly referred to as NSU or Nova, is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian, research university located in Broward County, Florida, with its main campus in the town of Davie...
and director of academic support at the university's law school. Grayson later returned to Phoenix to take a position as an English teacher at a private high school.
Recent work
Although Grayson had originally published some of the stories in The Silicon Valley Diet on early internet sites that featured short fiction, in 2004 he began appearing widely in various literary webzines with his memoirs, satire, and stories. His "Diary of a Congressional Candidate in Florida's Fourth Congressional DistrictCongressional district
A congressional district is “a geographical division of a state from which one member of the House of Representatives is elected.”Congressional Districts are made up of three main components, a representative, constituents, and the specific land area that both the representative and the...
," a recurring feature on the website of McSweeney's, covered his 2004 campaign as the sole opponent to Rep. Ander Crenshaw
Ander Crenshaw
Ander Crenshaw is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...
, a Jacksonville Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, and brought him a new audience.
More recently, Grayson published two short story collections almost simultaneously. The more experimental book was Highly Irregular Stories (2006), which Kirkus Discoveries called "an eclectic anthology of intriguing short stories...Grayson’s stories here recall no one so much as Richard Brautigan, who walked a similar line between wit and warmth in his more eccentric novels." The second volume, And to Think That He Kissed Him on Lorimer Street, which Kirkus Discoveries termed "[a] funny, odd, somehow familiar and fully convincing fictional world," featured more representational and autobiographical stories, mostly set in the author's native Brooklyn.
While the literary reference volume Contemporary Literary Criticism has called Grayson "a marginal figure in contemporary American fiction," it also noted that "he and his fictional persona seem quite aware of this fact" and that "[t]aken as a body of work, Grayson's short fiction ultimately appears to be one ongoing, career-long writing project, focused always on the effects of contemporary culture on the self."
In 2010, Grayson ran as the Green Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona's 6th Congressional District and finished fourth.