where the writers are

T. Coraghessan Boyle Author of nineteen books (several bestsellers) and many short stories

T. Coraghessan Boyle

Biography T. Coraghessan Boyle is the author of nineteen books of fiction, including, most recently, After the Plague (2001), Drop City (2003), The Inner Circle (2004), Tooth and Claw (2005), and Talk Talk (2006). Born Thomas John Boyle in Peekskill, New York, he grew up in the small town on the Hudson Valley that he regularly fictionalizes as Peterskill (as in widely anthologized short story Greasy Lake). Boyle changed his middle name when he was seventeen and exclusively used Coraghessan for much of his career, but now also goes by T.C. Boyle.

Boyle earned a bachelor’s degree in English and history from the State University of New York at Potsdam in 1968, after which he taught for four years at the high school in his home town where his mother worked as head secretary and his father as janitor.

He also received a doctorate in Nineteenth-Century British Literature from the University of Iowa in 1977 and his master of fine arts from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1974. He has been a member of the English Department at the University of Southern California since 1978. His books are available in a number of foreign languages, including German, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, Danish, Swedish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Hungarian and Bulgarian. His stories have appeared in most of the major American magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, The Paris Review, GQ, Antaeus, Granta, and McSweeney’s, and he has been the recipient of a number of literary awards. He currently lives near Santa Barbara with his wife and three children.

Bibliography:

Fiction:
Descent of Man. Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1979.
Water Music. Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1981.
Budding Prospects. New York: Viking, 1984.
Greasy Lake. New York: Viking, 1985.
World’s End. New York: Viking, 1987.
If the River Was Whiskey. New York: Viking, 1989.
East Is East. New York: Viking, 1990.
The Road to Wellville. New York: Viking, 1993.
Without A Hero. New York: Viking, 1994.
The Tortilla Curtain. New York: Viking, 1995.
Riven Rock. New York: Viking, 1998.
T.C. Boyle Stories. New York: Viking, 1998.
A Friend of the Earth. New York: Viking, 2000.
After the Plague. New York: Viking, 2001
Drop City. New York: Viking, 2003.
The Inner Circle. New York: Viking, 2004.
Tooth and Claw. New York: Viking, 2005.
Talk Talk. New York: Viking, 2006.

Awards and Honors:
Best American Stories selection, 2004. “Tooth and Claw,” from The New Yorker.
Editors’ Choice, New York Times Book Review, one of 9 best books of the year, 2003.
O. Henry Award, 2003. “Swept Away,” from The New Yorker.
National Book Award Finalist, Drop City, 2003.
Southern California Booksellers’ Association Award for best fiction title of the year, 2002, for After the Plague.
O.Henry Award, 2001. “The Love of My Life,” from The New Yorker.
The Bernard Malamud Prize in Short Fiction from the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, 1999, for T.C. Boyle Stories, the Collected Stories.
O.Henry Award, 1999. “The Underground Gardens,” from The New Yorker.
Prix Médicis Étranger, Paris, for the best foreign novel of the year, 1997 (The Tortilla Curtain).
Best American Stories selection, 1997. “Killing Babies,” from The New Yorker.
Howard D. Vursell Memorial Award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters, for prose excellence, 1993.
Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree, State University of New York, 1991.
Editors’ Choice, New York Times Book Review, one of the 13 best books of the year, 1989 (If the River Was Whiskey).
PEN Center West Literary Prize, best short story collection of the year, 1989 (If the River Was Whiskey).
Prix Passion publishers’ prize, France, for best novel of the year, 1989 (Water Music).
O. Henry Award, 1989. “The Ape Lady in Retirement,” from The Paris Review.
Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal for Literature, best novel of the year, 57th annual awards, 1988 (World’s End).
O. Henry Award, 1988. “Sinking House,” from The Atlantic Monthly.
PEN/Faulkner Award, best novel of the year, 1988, for World’s End.
Guggenheim Fellowship, 1988.
Editors’ Choice, New York Times Book Review, one of the 16 best books of of the year, 1987 (World’s End).
Commonwealth of California, Silver Medal for Literature, 55th Annual Awards, 1986 (Greasy Lake).
The Paris Review’s John Train Humor Prize, 1984 (“The Hector Quesadilla Story”). National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, 1983.
The Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, 1981 (“Mungo Among the Moors,” excerpt from Water Music).
The St. Lawrence Award for Fiction, best story collection of the year, 1980 (Descent of Man).
National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, 1977.
Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines Fiction Award for the Short Story, 1977.

Upcoming Works

  • The Women

Nickname

  • T.C.

Relationship

  • Married

Family

  • Wife and three children

University Affiliation

  • Professor at University of Southern California

Agents

  • Georges Borchardt
    Georges Borchardt, Inc

Contact Agents

  • 137 East 57th Street
    New York, NY 10022

Publishers

  • Heinle
    McGraw-Hill
    Penguin Group USA
    Viking
    Viking Juvenile

Web Links