Anthony Doerr

{{Infobox writer

| name = Anthony Doerr

| image = Anthony Doerr (2015).jpg

| caption = Doerr in July 2015

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1973}}

| birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Novelist

| education = Bowdoin College (AB)
Bowling Green State University (MFA)

| website = {{URL|http://www.anthonydoerr.com}}

}}

Anthony Doerr is an American author of novels and short stories. He gained widespread recognition for his 2014 novel All the Light We Cannot See, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Early life and education

Doerr grew up in Cleveland, Ohio,{{cite news |first=Karen R. |last=Long |title=Anthony Doerr Wins Lucrative Short-story Prize |url=http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2011/04/anthony_doerr_wins_lucrative_s.html |newspaper=The Plain Dealer |date=April 10, 2011 |access-date=2011-04-27 }} He attended University School in Hunting Valley, an eastern Cleveland suburb, graduating in 1991. He majored in history at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine southwest of Augusta, graduating in 1995. He earned an MFA from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green.{{cite web|url=http://www.bestyoungnovelists.com/Anthony-Doerr |title=Anthony Doerr |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509162510/http://www.bestyoungnovelists.com/Anthony-Doerr |archive-date=May 9, 2010 }}

Career

Doerr's first book was a collection of short stories called The Shell Collector (2002). His first novel, About Grace, was released in 2004. His memoir, Four Seasons in Rome, was published in 2007, and his second collection of short stories, Memory Wall, was published in 2010. Doerr's second novel, All the Light We Cannot See, is set in occupied France during World War II and was published in 2014. He laboriously worked on writing it for a decade in his downtown Boise office.{{cite news|last1=Oland|first1=Dana|title=Boise's Anthony Doerr wins the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction|url=http://idahostatesman.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article40854669.html|work=Idaho Statesman|date=April 20, 2015|access-date=April 20, 2015}}

It received significant critical acclaim and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.{{Cite news|title=Get To Know The Finalists For The 2014 National Book Award|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/10/15/354568850/get-to-know-the-finalists-for-the-2014-national-book-award|access-date=2020-11-06|website=NPR.org|language=en}} The book was a New York Times bestseller, and was named by the newspaper as a notable book of 2014.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/books/review/the-10-best-books-of-2014.html|title=The 10 Best Books of 2014|work=The New York Times|date=December 4, 2014}} It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2015. It was the runner-up for the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction{{cite web|url=http://daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/#|title=Dayton Literary Peace Prize - An International Award|author=D. Verne Morland }} and won the 2015 Ohioana Library Association Book Award for Fiction.{{cite web|url=http://ohioana.org/about/media/prjuly1415.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-12-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905065528/http://www.ohioana.org/about/media/prjuly1415.pdf |archive-date=September 5, 2015 }} “It’s hard to think that I really belong on that list (he's the first Idahoan to win but a handful of writers including Ernest Hemingway and Toni Morrison have ties to Idaho),” he told the Idaho Statesman. “I really haven’t had a chance to understand what this means. It’s so overwhelming. My editor worked with a bunch of great writers and told me that when Frank McCourt (‘Angela’s Ashes’ in 1997) won he told her, ‘Now you know the first line of my obituary.’ ... that’s true. It’s this thing that will be forever attached to my name. You know, ‘Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Doerr does something stupid at a BSU football game.’ ...Can’t do that anymore.”

Doerr writes a column on science books for The Boston Globe and is a contributor to The Morning News, an online magazine. From 2007 to 2010, he was the Writer in Residence for the state of Idaho.{{cite web|url=http://www.arts.idaho.gov/writers/tonydoerr.aspx|title=ICA|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120512031242/http://www.arts.idaho.gov/writers/tonydoerr.aspx|archive-date=May 12, 2012|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|url=http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/anthony-doerr-is-a-recognized-and-slightly-wealthier-fellow/Content?oid=1566790|title=Anthony Doerr Is A Recognized (And Slightly Wealthier) Fellow|work=Boise Weekly|access-date=April 29, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310165604/http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/anthony-doerr-is-a-recognized-and-slightly-wealthier-fellow/Content?oid=1566790|archive-date=March 10, 2012|url-status=dead}} Doerr's third novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, has three story lines, scattered throughout time: 13-year-old Anna and Omeir, an orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy, on opposite sides of formidable city walls during the 1453 siege of Constantinople; teenage idealist Seymour and octogenarian Zeno in an attack on a public library in present-day Idaho; and Konstance, decades from now, who turns to the oldest stories to guide her community in peril.{{Cite press release|url=https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/harpercollins-is-delighted-to-announce-the-publication-of-antony-doerr-s-new-novel-cloud-cuckoo-land--871404014.html|title = HarperCollins is delighted to announce the publication of Antony Doerr's new novel 'CLOUD CUCKOO LAND'}} Cloud Cuckoo Land was released September 28, 2021. It was shortlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.{{Cite web|last=|date=2021-10-06|title=National Book Awards 2021 shortlists announced|url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/10/06/194761/national-book-award-2021-shortlists-announced/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-10-10|website=Books+Publishing|language=en-AU|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006025606/https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/10/06/194761/national-book-award-2021-shortlists-announced/ |archive-date=October 6, 2021 }}

Personal life

Doerr lives in the highlands of Boise, Idaho with his wife Shauna Eastman and their two twin sons. He has coached flag football and he and his sons ski and hike.

Bibliography

=Novels=

About Grace (2004) {{ISBN|9780743261821}}
All the Light We Cannot See (2014) {{ISBN|9781476746586}}
Cloud Cuckoo Land (2021) {{ISBN|9781982168438}}

= Short fiction =

;Collections

The Shell Collector (2002) {{ISBN|9781439190050}}
Memory Wall (2010) {{ISBN|9781439182802}}

;Anthologies edited

The Best American Short Stories 2019 (Editor) {{ISBN|9781328465825}}

=Memoirs=

Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World (2007) {{ISBN|9781416540014}}

=Essays and reporting=

{{cite journal |author=Doerr, Anthony |date=2010 |title=Two nights |journal=Fugue |volume=38 |issue=Winter–Spring 2010 |pages=45–54 |url=http://issuu.com/uidahodigital/docs/fugue2010_n38 }}
{{cite book |author=Doerr, Anthony |author-mask=1 |editor=Henderson, Bill |title=The Pushcart Prize XXXVII : best of the small presses 2013 |publisher=Pushcart Press |date=2013 |pages=208–216 |chapter=Two nights}}

=Critical studies and reviews of Doerr's work=

;Cloud cuckoo land

{{cite journal |author=Wood, James |author-link=James Wood (critic) |date=October 4, 2021 |title=Connect the dots : everything must converge in Anthony Doerr's 'Cloud cuckoo land' |department=The Critics. Books |journal=The New Yorker |volume=97 |issue=31 |pages=69–72 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/04/anthony-doerrs-optimism-engine }}Online version is titled "Anthony Doerr's optimism engine".

———————

;Notes

Awards

2002: Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, for The Shell Collector
2002: O. Henry Prize for "The Hunter's Wife"
2003: Young Lions Fiction Award for The Shell Collector
2003: O. Henry Prize for "The Shell Collector"
2005: Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy in Rome
2005, 2011: Ohioana Book Award for About Grace and Memory Wall, respectively
2008: O. Henry Prize for "Village 113" (Short story)
2010: Guggenheim Fellowship
2011: The Story Prize for Memory Wall
2011: Sunday Times Short Story Award for "The Deep"{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13010528 |title=Anthony Doerr wins Short Story award |work=BBC News |author=Staff writer |author-link=Staff writer |date=April 8, 2011 |access-date=January 22, 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/article378469.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509185353/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/article378469.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 9, 2012 |title=A heartwarming win for a heartbreaking tale |work=The Sunday Times |author=Staff writer |author-link=Staff writer |date=April 9, 2011 |access-date=January 22, 2013}}
2012: O. Henry Prize for "The Deep"
2014: National Book Award for Fiction finalist for All the Light We Cannot See
2015: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for All the Light We Cannot See
2021: O. Henry Prize for "The Master’s Castle"

References

External links

{{Official website|http://www.anthonydoerr.com}}
Video: {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140518043852/http://fora.tv/2011/03/02/The_Story_Prize_Awards_Ceremony_2011/ The Story Prize reading]}} with Yiyun Li and Suzanne Rivecca. March 2, 2011.

Category:American columnists

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:Bowdoin College alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Poets laureate of Idaho

Category:American male novelists

Category:Novelists from Ohio

Category:21st-century American poets

Category:American male poets

Category:American male short story writers

Category:Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners

Category:21st-century American short story writers