James Robison (born October 11, 1946) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet and screenwriter. The author of The Illustrator (1988) and Rumor and Other Stories (1985), his work has frequently appeared in The New Yorker and numerous other journals. He is a recipient of the Whiting AwardWhiting Writers' Award Recipients for his short fiction and a Rosenthal AwardThe Rosendthal Award in Fiction Recipients from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.The American Academy of Arts and Letters He has held teaching posts at numerous universities across the United States, including the University of HoustonUniversity of Houston Creative Writing Program and Loyola University Maryland.
Biography Robison was born in Worthington, Ohio, in 1946.Rumor and Other Stories (New York: Summit Books: Distributed by Simon & Schuster, 1985): author biographical note His father was a graphic artist and freelance illustrator in Columbus, Ohio. Robison attended Worthington High School from 1960 to 1964. He attended Ohio State University. After working for several years as a commercial artist, he continued his education, and received an MFA from Brown University in 1979, where he worked with Robert Coover, R.V. Cassill, and John Hawkes. His creative thesis was entitled Gold Whiskey and Other Stories.Gold Whiskey and Other Stories (Providence: s.n., 1979) After Brown, he traveled to Baltimore and Boston. In 1988, he began teaching creative writing along with his former wife, the author Mary Robison, at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, where he would spend much of the next decade. Since leaving Houston, he has taught at various universities, including as Visiting Writer at Loyola College of Maryland, The University of Southern Mississippi and the University of North Dakota. He's been married to the writer, Mary Ferraro, since 1997.
Work Robison's first publications were in literary journals, including eight stories in The New Yorker beginning in 1979,List of Robison stories at The New Yorker as well as Grand Street, The Mississippi Review, Best American Short Stories 1980 (selected by Stanley Elkin), and The Pushcart Prize Anthology. The Mississippi Review devoted an entire issue to his work in 1994.
His stories were first collected in Rumor and Other StoriesRumor and Other Stories (New York: Summit, 1985) in 1985. His first novel, The Illustrator,The Illustrator (New York: Summit, 1988) appeared in 1988. He has at least one screenplay to his credit, 2008's New Orleans, Mon Amour.New Orleans, Mon Amour at IMDB Since 2010, his work has undergone something of a renaissance, with numerous new stories, flash fictions, and poems appearing in journals such as BLIP Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly, Blue Fifth Review, and elsewhere. In 2012 he won a second Pushcart Prize for his short story "I See Men Like Trees, Walking" which will be included in the Pushcart 2013 Anthology.
Critical reception Like most minimalists, he tends to eschew the term. Donald Barthelme called The Illustrator “a remarkable achievement,” and “a brilliant piece of work. It is funny and sinister and affecting and profound, all at the same time."Quoted by Gabe Durham in NOÖ Journal 5 Nov. 2010 Anthony Burgess said, "His ear is astounding, as is his narrative power, his ability to deal shocks and psychological truths, and his sheer grasp of the form."[Book Jacket, Rumor and Other Stories] John Hawkes wrote "his stories are among the funniest, profoundest, and most exactingly written of any appearing in print."[Book Jacket, Rumor and Other Stories] Of Rumor and Other Stories, Frederick Barthelme said "The world through James Robison's eyes is such a dazzling show of delicacy and precision that heartbreak turns on the choice of a verb. His dialogue is never less than perfect. Radiant, energetic, and above all, touching."[Book Jacket, Rumor and Other Stories]
Recent work Since 2010, Robison has again begun to publish extensively, with work appearing in The Manchester Review,"Radio Talkers" The Manchester Review 5 (Oct 2010) Smokelong Quarterly, The Blue Fifth Review,"For the Film New Orleans Mon Amour" Blue Fifth Review Broadside Series #19 X.v (July 2010) "The Failure of Claws" Blue Fifth Review III (Fall 2010) Commonline,"The Slender Scent" Commonline 10 June 2010 BLIP Magazine, Blast Furnace,"History Is The Work Of The Dead" Blast Furnace 1.1 (Winter 2010) Scythe Literary Journal,"Weightless" Scythe Literary Journal IV (Winter 2010) "Kindness" Scythe Literary Journal III (Summer 2010) Metazen, The Raleigh Review,"Rodeo Days" Raleigh Review 1 (2010) Whale Sound, and Corium Magazine."The Early Style" Corium Magazine 2 (June 2010) Normally reticent, he granted an interview to Smokelong Quarterly, in which he discussed aesthetics: "I saw a Nova-like show about dark matter, how scientists know that it exists because some light waves firing to earth bend and curve all around a precisely shaped nothingness. I thought, boy howdy, this is how so much art, plastic or literary, from the 20th and 21st Century behaves: Its true content is what it refuses to describe explicitly, but the shape of its meaning may be precisely limned by implication." Contributing to a piece posted in BLIP, he wrote:Quoted in BLIP Magazine editorial, 31 Aug. 2010 "For years, decades, I tried to teach the students to do lightning strike stuff. Bang. Blinding light. Whiff of burnt earth. Then go away and do not worry about anything because you have not done the great damage of boring anybody. It was years of this. NOW many are doing it and NOW, 25, 30 years later, it's good that they are and I am happy to see such stuff and even that its name is FLASH fiction."
He is an active member of the Fictionaut site, of which he said: "Fictionaut is a test track and display room for works in process and as a writer, your readers there make up a community of trusted and truthful equals, eerily reliable so far. Writing into a void is miserable, like telling jokes to a wall. Fictionaut provides a round-the-clock, faithfully attentive audience. It's a post post graduate-level workshop." In an interview with Meg Pokrass at Fictionaut Five,"Fictionaut Five: James Robison" Interview by Meg Pokrass, Fictionaut Blog - A Literary Community for Adventurous Readers & Writers 17 Nov. 2010 he said: "A story must have three ingredients, like, oral surgery, Puccini’s Turandot, and divorce. Or hurricane science, a niece, and physics. If I have three large thoughts, intuitions or detections about three varied things, I’ll launch a story." Later in the interview, he said, "Before you can be a writer you must make it new and the only way to do that is to run a harrowing, fearless, ruthless self audit. A psychological, emotional, moral inventory. You must know who you are, without delusions or self-deception, and what you find is apt to scare the spit out of you. But that is the truth you must accept and the truth from which you will construct every sentence."
Awards and honors 1980 Best American Short Stories 1989 Rosenthal Foundation Award in Fiction - American Academy of Arts and Letters 1995 Whiting Award 1996 Pushcart Prize 2013 Pushcart Prize
Bibliography
Novels
Short fiction Collections
Rumor and Other Stories (1985) 7 Stories: James Robison, Mississippi Review 22.3 (1994)
Short stories TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collectedThe ecstasy of the animals1979 Home1979The late style1995
"Rumor" The New Yorker, 12 Jan. 1981: 35 "The Line" The New Yorker, 30 Aug. 1982: 32 "Set Off" The New Yorker, 27 Sept. 1982: 42 "Transfer" The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 1983: 44 "The Indian Gardens" The New Yorker, 3 Sept. 1984: 30 "The Foundry" Grand Street, 4.1 (Autumn 1984): 7–15 "Between Seasons" The New Yorker, 14 June 1993: 76 "Square One" The New Yorker, 16 Aug. 1993: 82 "Rodeo Days" Raleigh Review 1 (2010) "The Early Style" Corium Magazine 2 (June 2010)"The Early Style" Corium Magazine 2 (June 2010)] "Guard" SmokeLong Quarterly 29 (Sept 2010)"Guard" SmokeLong Quarterly 29 (Sept 2010)] "Be Bop" BLIP Magazine (Fall 2010)"Be Bop" BLIP Magazine (Fall 2010)] "Radio Talkers" The Manchester Review 5 (Oct 2010)"Radio Talkers" The Manchester Review 5 (Oct 2010)] "Prologue" elimae (Nov 2010)"Prologue" elimae (Nov 2010)] "Mars" BLIP Magazine, 9 Nov. 2010"Mars" BLIP Magazine, 9 Nov. 2010 "Prodigal Heart" Ramshackle Review 2 (Dec 2010)"Prodigal Heart" Ramshackle Review 2 (Dec 2010)] "I See Men Like Trees, Walking" Wigleaf: (very) Short Fiction, 9 Feb. 2011"I See Men Like Trees, Walking" Wigleaf: (very) Short Fiction, 9 Feb. 2011] "DETOX" Wilderness House Literary Review 22, 6.2 (July 2011)"DETOX" Wilderness House Literary Review 22, 6.2 (July 2011)] "Fall" Corium Magazine 6 (July 2011)"Fall" Corium Magazine 6 (July 2011)] "Great Lakes Foundry 1990" The Montréal Review (July 2011)"Great Lakes Foundry 1990" The Montréal Review (July 2011)] "Why Poets Are No Good in Movies Nowadays and Four Poets and Which to Film" The Dublin Quarterly 16 (Sept 2011)"Why Poets Are No Good in Movies Nowadays and Four Poets and Which to Film" The Dublin Quarterly 16 (Sept 2011)] "LVIV" StepAway Magazine 3 (Sept 2011)"LVIV" StepAway Magazine 3 (Sept 2011)] "There Are No Lines in Nature" Necessary Fiction, 2 Dec. 2011"There Are No Lines in Nature" Necessary Fiction, 2 Dec. 2011] "Zurich" Salt Hill Journal 28 (2011): 41-45Salt Hill Journal 28 (2011): 41-45] "LSD" The Manchester Review 8 (March 2012)"LSD" The Manchester Review 8 (March 2012) "April" The Montréal Review (April 2012)"April" The Montréal Review (April 2012)]
Poetry TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collected inThe slender scent2010I see men like trees, walking2011
"Kindness" Scythe Literary Journal III (Summer 2010)"Kindness" Scythe Literary Journal III (Summer 2010)] "Poem: 'For the Film New Orleans Mon Amour' & Comment" Blue Fifth Review Broadside Series #19 X.v (July 2010)"Poem: 'For the Film New Orleans Mon Amour' & Comment" Blue Fifth Review Broadside Series #19 X.v (July 2010)] "The Struggle Leaving" The Houston Literary Review (Sept 2010): 27"The Struggle Leaving" The Houston Literary Review (Sept 2010): 27] "Gray Gaze" Metazen, 9 Sept. 2010"Gray Gaze" Metazen 9 Sept. 2010] "The Failure of Claws" Blue Fifth Review III (Fall 2010)"The Failure of Claws" Blue Fifth Review III (Fall 2010)] "Bowls" The Santa Clara Review 98.1 (Fall/Winter 2010) "History Is The Work Of The Dead" Blast Furnace 1.1 (Winter 2010)"History Is The Work Of The Dead" Blast Furnace 1.1 (Winter 2010)] "Weightless" Scythe Literary Journal IV (Winter 2010)"Weightless" Scythe Literary Journal IV (Winter 2010)] "Late August" Istanbul Literary Review 19 (Jan 2011)"Late August" Istanbul Literary Review 19 (Jan 2011)] "The Mystic in a Rage of Verse" The St. Sebastian Review 1.2 (Fall 2011): 13"The Mystic in a Rage of Verse" The St. Sebastian Review 1.2 (Fall 2011): 13] "Burning Tide," "Lemon Shark" Northwest Review 49.1 (2011): 77 "Hector" Pirene's Fountain 4.10 (Oct 2011)"Hector" Pirene's Fountain 4.10 (Oct 2011)] "Benelli Nova Pump Shotgun" Thrush (March 2012)"Benelli Nova Pump Shotgun" Thrush (March 2012)] "A Temper" THIS Literary Magazine 14 (March/April 2012)"A Temper" THIS Literary Magazine 14 (March/April 2012)]
Interviews "James Robison" Interview by Robert Stewart and Rebekah Presson. New Letters on the Air, 18 Sept. 1987 "Interview: James Robison" Interview by Patricia Lear. Other Voices 12 (Summer/Fall 1990) "Smoking With James Robison" Interview by Lauren Becker. SmokeLong Quarterly, 29 Sept. 2010"Smoking With James Robison" Interview by Lauren Becker. SmokeLong Quarterly, 29 Sept. 2010] "Fictionaut Five: James Robison", Interview by Meg Pokrass. Fictionaut Blog - A Literary Community for Adventurous Readers & Writers, 17 Nov. 2010"Fictionaut Five: James Robison" Interview by Meg Pokrass. Fictionaut Blog - A Literary Community for Adventurous Readers & Writers 17 Nov. 2010]
Articles, essays and other work