Friends,
I've been preoccupied lately with this other blog project for a while now, and I'm having a little trouble with it. Not the setting up the blog part, because I know what I'm doing there (finally), but really it's about the content.
Without giving too much away, I need to pick who are, without major quibbling, who are the top, living, 128 writers of adult fiction in English. No translated fiction (sorry Milan Kundera). Must be predominantly known as a fiction writer (sorry Annie Dillard, David Sedaris & Joan Didion). And no children's authors (sorry Chris Van Allsburg, Maurice Sendak and Sharon Creech). And no comic writers, prose poets, playwrights or screenplay writers (sorry Alan Moore, Charles Simic, Harold Pinter and Charlie Kaufman). Why none of those? Blatant arbitrariness. Lines must be drawn somewhere when crafting these kinds of lists for no other reason than to make the discussion a little more manageable. While it does exclude certain kinds of genius, maybe they just belong on other lists.
First thing I did was pick all the winners of the major literary awards since 2000 (the awards I used for this are The Nobel, The Pulitzer, The National Book Award, The National Book Critics Circle Award, The Man Book Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award and the PEN/Malamud Award). (See Seth's comment about that book of awards, we talked about that on the phone before it is interesting, but they are recognized symbols of literary worth, so they are another valuable limiting agent on the discussion, much like throwing out some writers simply based on their chosen medium or genre).
After that, I picked authors I liked, respected or has a good literary pedigree. I've also thrown in a couple people who I consider masters of pop fiction, like Nick Hornby and Elmore Leonard.
So, what I'm asking for is for you to look over this list, and tell me who am I missing, and who needs to be taken off in favor of the person you think should be off the list. Don't just suggest a new name without suggestion a deletion, that does me no good.
Also, those listed as "Award Winners" cannot be removed from the list, they're in the discussion no matter what, so only make your substitution suggestions from the "Other" list.
I know compiling such a list will, inevitably, leave some people off. That happens, that's the fun of lists. But, I don't want to miss anybody obvious or include someone who doesn't deserve it out of personal bias. Or it turns out someone is dead, and I didn't know it. Or, maybe, they write in a different language first and have their works translated. And I keep waffling on a few names, and I want to see if they come up, like should Dennis Lehane be in this conversation, and in place of who? And Tom Perrota, Carl Hiaasen, Garrison Keillor, Jayne Anne Phillips....oh, the list goes on.
Anyway, here's the list, tell me what you think. Leave your feedback in the comments, please.
Also of the 5 finalists for the 2008 National Book Award, 2 of them are already on the list, so if one of them wins, then Tony Earley will go on this list as an "Other" (that's what why's down there, listed "128.5") So, if you think Tony Earley shouldn't be on the list, suggest others, please.
Award Winners
1. Adam Haslett
2. Alan Hollingshurst
3. Ann Beattie
4. Ann Patchett
5. Anne Entright
6. Arvind Adiga
7. Barry Hannah
8. Cormac McCarthy
9. Cynthia Ozick
10. DBC Pierre
11. Denis Johnson
12. Doris Lessing
13. E.L. Doctorow
14. Edward P. Jones
15. Elizabeth Spencer
16. Geraldine Brooks
17. Ha Jin
18. Ian McEwan
19. J.M. Coetzee
20. Jeffery Eugenides
21. Jhumpa Lahiri
22. Jim Crace
23. John Banville
24. John Updike
25. Jonathan Franzen
26. Julia Glass
27. Junot Diaz
28. Kate Christensen
29. Kiran Desai
30. Lily Tuck
31. Lorrie Morre
32. Malie Meloy
33. Margaret Atwood
34. Marilynne Robinson
35. Michael Chabon
36. Nathan Englander
37. Nell Freudenberg
38. Peter Carey
39. Peter Ho Davies
40. Philip Roth
41. Richard Bausch
42. Richard Ford
43. Richard Powers
44. Richard Russo
45. Sabrina Murray
46. Sherman Alexie
47. Shirley Hazzard
48. Tobias Wolff
49. Ursula K. LeGuin
50. V.S. Naipaul
51. William Vollman
52. Yann Martel
53. (Reserved for 2008 National Book Award Winner, unless already on list)
Others
54. A.M. Homes
55. Aleksander Hemon
56. Alice McDermott
57. Alice Munro
58. Alice Walker
59. Allan Gurganus
60. Amy Hempel
61. Amy Tan
62. Annie Proulx
63. Barbara Kingslover
64. Bharati Mukherjee
65. Bobbie Ann Mason
66. Brett Easton Ellis
67. Charles D’Ambrosio
68. Dan Chaon
69. Dave Eggers
70. David Leavitt
71. Don DeLilo
72. Dorothy Allison
73. Edwidge Danticat
74. Elmore Leonard
75. Ernest Gaines
76. Ethan Canin
77. Francine Prose
78. George Saunders
79. Gish Jen
80. Gore Vidal
81. Harper Lee
82. Harry Crews
83. J.D. Salinger
84. Jamaica Kincaid
85. Jane Smiley
86. Joanna Scott
87. John Barth
88. John Edgar Wideman
89. John Irving
90. Jonathan Lethem
91. Jonathan Safran Foer
92. Joy Williams
93. Joyce Carol Oates
94. Julian Barnes
95. Kazuo Ishiguro
96. Kevin Brockmeier
97. Larry McMurtry
98. Lee Smith
99. Louise Erdrich
100. Mark Helprin
101. Martin Amis
102. Mary Gaitskill
103. Michael Cunningham
104. Michael Ondaatje
105. Nick Hornby
106. Ray Bradbury
107. Rick Moody
108. Robert Coover
109. Robert Olen Butler
110. Robert Stone
111. Roddy Doyle
112. Russell Banks
113. Salman Rushdie
114. Sandra Cisneros
115. Stephen King
116. Steven Millhauser
117. Stuart Dybek
118. Sue Miller
119. T.C. Boyle
120. Thom Jones
121. Thomas Pynchon
122. Tim O’Brien
123. Tom Wolfe
124. Toni Morrison
125. Walter Mosley
126. William Kennedy
127. Zadie Smith
128. ZZ Packer
(128.5. Tony Earley)
viva el mustache
12 comments:
I would toss a vote in for James Ellroy. What about Allen Moore? I'm also a fan of Tom Robbins.
Oh, and on the subject of awards, there's an interesting book called "The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards and the Circulation of Cultural Value" by James English which examines the somewhat strange habit of awarding prizes for art. How many awards were started--like the nobel prize because alfred nobel didn't want to be remembered as the merchant of death--and how many awards were designed to bring money and exposure to excellent but little known writers and it's moved to honoring the already rich. One claim he makes is that there is nothing awards committees like more than to award people who have already won awards.
There's also an excellent discussion of Toni Morrison's active campaign to win the pulitzer prize. Basically how her friends took out a giant ad saying she is the only person concievably worthy of winning the award, since she had yet to win anything, despite people like Philip Roth also being up for the same award (and also sans pulitzer at the time).
Anyway, there you go.
I'm not sure how strict you're being on the number of children's/YA books a person has written to take his or her name off the list, but Sherman Alexie's *Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian* has been winning awards in the children's/YA world: 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, 2008 Boston Globe/Horn Book Award.
--Mitch
I had a passing thought for James Ellroy, but I was thinking Elmore Leonard could carry the "crime writer" torch, though Ellroy is a different animal, even more stylized I think (I've only read L.A. Confidential, and his style took some getting used to).
As for Robbins, I never read anything by him, but I know he's loved. So, who goes in favor of Tom Robbins?
Mitch,
I know Sherman had that YA book. And Yann Martel's Life of Pi (man booker prize winner) is marketed as a YA book anymore, right? And if Terry is to be believed DBC Pierre's book Vernon God Little (man booker prize winner) is a YA book But, I think writing one YA book or dabbling into another genre doesn't mean that's what the person is known for. Just because Jewel wrote a poetry book doesn't make her a poet, you know? A lot of the authors here wrote in multiple genres. Gore Vidal probably wrote just a much non-fiction as fiction. Tom Wolfe, too.
It's the same reasoning I have for excluding Didion and Dillard. Both have written fiction books, hell, Dillard's book The Maytrees, was up for all kinds of awards when it came out (probably just on the strength of her literary pedigree), but because both of them are known primarily as non-fiction writers, then they get left out.
I was thinking people who were thought of as YA authors mostly, like, say, Louis Sachar, or Sharon Creech, or Judy Blume, not because they aren't good writers, but because there needs to be limits somewhere I suppose.
I'll give you a Brady Udall and a Nicholson Baker (although, maybe he's known more for non-fiction?) for a...hell, I don't know a lot of these people. Well, I know them, but I haven't read a lot of them. So, I know you said not to give names with out taking a name off, but I don't feel I should be nixing names I haven't read. But, consider these two.
I was going to post that Michael Cunningham won a Pulitzer (1999) and Michael Ondaatje won a Booker Prize (1992), but then I realized that you were limiting winners to 2000 and later.
I would argue that both should be in the "Award Winner" category because of the merit of their work over the last couple of decades, but I guess you have to make the cut somewhere.
Jorge,
Nicholson Baker was on that list for a long time, but I don't know if he is more known as a non-fiction writer or not to be honest. I just knew you're a big fan, and that was good enough for me. But, when the 2008 awards started coming out, and I included the PEN/Malamud award, well, that complicated matters and a few others had to get axed. Like, Padgett Powell, who I think is great, but there's enough southern writers on that list, one more might be too much, even though he is McSweeney-certified.
Anyway, speaking of Baker, I found a first edition, first printing of The Fermata, complete with that little plastic sleeve. Do you have that? Interested?
I think Baker has become more non-fiction. At least recently. So I would support his axing. If his next book is fiction, then I think he could be welcomed back into the world of the current fiction greats.
As far as the first edition, I had a copy. Then I loaned it to a certain fiction teacher here that likes to hoard things. Ahem, I know she's reading this. But I'm fine with that. I never loan books out thinking I will for sure get them back. So, yes, I am interested. How much you want for it?
Okay, here's one I missed. Charles Baxter on here in place of Tony Earley.
I thought I had Charles Baxter in this list, and I can't believe I left him off.
So, Bharati will be dropped for Baxter, or maybe Allan Gurganus. One of those two will go.
I think you ought to consider Ellroy, my friend. He and Leonard are two very different animals. Ellroy is essentially a pulp noir writer in the tradition of Hammett and Chandler, but with a much more hard-boiled streak. I think there is room for both, and if not, I'd argue that Ellory belongs on this list before Elmore Leonard.
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