[Novelist] Biographies & Profiles
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney was an American actor whose career spanned nine decades. He appeared in more than 300 films, making him one of the last surviving stars of the silent-film era. He was the top box-office attraction from 1939 to 1941, and at the peak of his career between ages 15 and 25, he made 43 films and was one of MGM's most successful actors. He won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award in 1982, and was awarded an Academy Honorary Award the same year. He first appeared as a child actor in vaudeville and made his film debut at the age of 6, playing the title character in the "Mickey McGuire" series. At 16, he began playing Andy Hardy and became an Academy Award nominee for his performance as Mickey Moran in 1939 film adaptation of coming-of-age Broadway musical Babes in Arms for which he was awarded a special Academy Juvenile Award. During World War II, he served nearly two years entertaining over two million troops, and returned to acting after being discharged. He continued to star in numerous low-budget, but critically well-received films noir, and went on to receive Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1957 and 1980 respectively. In the early 1980s, he returned to Broadway in Sugar Babies, and made hundreds of appearances on TV.
Kevin Kwan
Kevin Kwan is a highly influential American novelist and writer known for his satirical novel series Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend, and Rich People Problems, as well as his 2020 book, Sex and Vanity. He was included on The Hollywood Reporter's list of Hollywood's Most Powerful Authors in 2014, inducted into The Asian Hall of Fame in 2018, and named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the same year.
David Choe
David Choe is an American artist, writer and musician from Los Angeles. He is known for his work in urban culture and entertainment, where he has written for magazines such as Hustler, Ray Gun, and Vice. His work has been featured in the Asian pop culture store-cum-magazine Giant Robot, and in a Double Rainbow Ice Cream shop. His figurative paintings, known as "dirty style," explore themes of desire, degradation, and exaltation. His raw, frenetic style often make his works stand out in the art world.
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher was an American actress and writer best known for her role as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars films, which she reprised in subsequent films up until her death in 2016. She was also nominated twice for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, wrote several semi-autobiographical novels and screenplays, including Postcards from the Edge which earned her a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, and worked on other writers' screenplays as a script doctor. Fisher was the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, appeared in the documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, and was awarded a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2018.
Molly Ringwald
Molly Kathleen Ringwald is an American actress known for being a member of the "Brat Pack" following her roles in John Hughes' teen films Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. She began her career as a child actress on Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life and went on to receive a Golden Globe nomination for Tempest. In later decades she acted in television shows such as The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Riverdale, Creepshow, and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, as well as in several French films following leading roles in King Lear, The Pick-up Artist, Strike It Rich, and Betsy's Wedding.
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez was a Colombian author, screenwriter and journalist, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. His writing style, known as 'magical realism', incorporated fantastical elements into seemingly everyday situations. García Márquez wrote short stories and non-fiction, but is most famous for his novels such as One Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and Love in the Time of Cholera. He was credited for popularizing Latin American literature, and was an influential voice in politics, especially in Colombia. After his death in 2014, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos called him "the greatest Colombian who ever lived".
Janet Evanovich
Janet Evanovich is an incredibly successful American writer, best known for her series of Stephanie Plum novels which feature a contemporary mystery with a former lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey turned bounty hunter. Her books have appeared on The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestseller lists, with her last seventeen Plums debuting at #1 on the NY Times Best Sellers list and eleven hitting #1 on USA Today's Best-Selling Books list. With over two hundred million books in print worldwide and translations into over 40 languages, it's clear that Evanovich has had immense success in her writing career.
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American writer of weird, science, fantasy, and horror fiction best known for creating the Cthulhu Mythos. Hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, he lived most of his life in New England and wrote essays for the United Amateur Press Association. His works were primarily set in a fictionalized version of New England and his personal philosophy of cosmicism was a major theme of his fiction - positing that humanity is insignificant in an often hostile cosmos. Lovecraft had conservative political opinions early in life and held some racist views, though he no longer believed an aristocracy would make the world more fair after the Great Depression. His works, including The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time, gained a revival in popularity in the 1970s and he is now regarded as one of the most significant authors of supernatural horror fiction with many adaptations and spiritual successors forming the basis of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Chris Scott (writer)
Chris Scott is an English-Canadian writer, who has taught at York University in Toronto and Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and became a Canadian citizen in 1975. His novels Antichthon, Jack and Bartleby combine genre literature with experimental fiction, a style he has also used in his work for CBC Radio and as a book reviewer for various publications. Antichthon was nominated for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction in 1982, and Jack won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in 1989.
Douglas Kennedy (writer)
Douglas Kennedy is an American novelist. He is known for international bestsellers The Big Picture, The Pursuit of Happiness, Leaving the World and The Moment.
Christine Feehan
Christine Feehan is an American author of paranormal romance, paranormal military thrillers, fantasy and other genres. Her work has made her a #1 New York Times, #1 Publishers Weekly and International bestselling author of seven series; Carpathian, GhostWalker Series, Drake Sisters, Sister of the Heart Series, Shadow Riders Series, Leopard Series and Torpedo Ink Series, with six of these series making #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. As of January 2020, she has published 80 novels, with her most recent book, Judgment Road, making its debut at #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list.
Michael Cox (novelist)
Michael Andrew Cox was an English writer and editor known for his work in science fiction and fantasy literature. Born in Rochdale, England in 1951, Cox studied literature and creative writing at the University of Liverpool and went on to pursue a successful literary career. He was the editor of the science fiction magazine Interzone from 1984 to 1992 and wrote novels such as "The Meaning of Life" and "The Glass Prison". He was a prolific short story writer, having published over fifty stories in various anthologies, British and American magazines and literary journals. Cox was a respected figure in the science fiction and fantasy writing community, often attending science fiction conventions and giving readings of his work. He died in 2011 at the age of 60. Michael Andrew Cox was a renowned English writer and editor. Born in 1951, he studied literature and creative writing at the University of Liverpool and went on to have a successful career in writing and editing. He was the editor of Interzone magazine from 1984-1992, and wrote multiple novels and short stories. Cox was held in high regard in the science fiction and fantasy writing community, and often attended conventions and readings. Sadly, he passed away in 2011 at the age of 60.
John Gardner (American writer)
John Champlin Gardner Jr. was an American novelist, essayist, literary critic and university professor. He is best known for his 1971 novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth from the monster's point of view.
Tim Sullivan (writer)
Tim Sullivan is an American science fiction novelist, screenwriter, actor, film director, and short story writer. His works have been recognized and translated into multiple languages, such as German and Chinese. "Zeke", a short story about an extraterrestrial on Earth, was a Nebula Award Finalist in 1982. Two others, "Under Glass" and "Yeshua's Dog", have been optioned for Chinese translation. His works have been critically acclaimed by critics.
Lisa Gardner
Lisa Gardner is a #1 New York Times bestselling American novelist and author of more than 20 suspense novels that have been published in over 30 countries. She initially adopted the pen name Alicia Scott for her romantic suspense writing before rising to fame with her 1997 domestic thriller novel, The Perfect Husband. Her works have been adapted for television and movies, such as At the Midnight House, Instinct to Kill, The Survivors Club, and Hide. Additionally, Gardner has made personal appearances on TruTV's Murder by the Book and CNN.
Piers Anthony
Piers Anthony is an American author, who is well-known for his science fiction and fantasy novels, particularly his long-running book series set in the fictional realm of Xanth. His books have been featured on The New York Times Best Seller list, and he has achieved the impressive feat of publishing a book beginning with each letter of the alphabet, from Anthonology to Zombie Lover.
Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis CBE, often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Irish-born British poet who served as Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972, and also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake. He worked in the Ministry of Information for the UK government during World War II and served in the Musbury branch of the British Home Guard. He is the father of actor Sir Daniel Day-Lewis and documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis.
John D. MacDonald
John Dann MacDonald was a bestselling American author of thrillers, crime, and suspense novels set in his adopted home of Florida. His works include the Travis McGee series and The Executioners, which was made into a film in 1957 and subsequently remade in 1991. He sold an estimated 70 million books, making him one of the most successful American novelists of his time.
Ivan Doig
Ivan Doig was an acclaimed American author and novelist, renowned for his works set mostly in Montana. Themes often explored in his books include the struggles of everyday life and the people of the post-war American West. Doig won numerous awards throughout his lifetime, including the National Book Award, the University of Colorado's Wallace Stegner Award and the Western Literature Association's Distinguished Achievement award. According to Birkerts, Doig was a “presiding figure in the literature of the American West,” and Doig himself believed that “ordinary people deserve to have their stories told.”
Ben Lerner
Benjamin S. Lerner is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic who has been awarded countless impressive honors, from being a Fulbright Scholar to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and even the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. In 2011, he made history by becoming the first American to win the "Preis der Stadt Münster für internationale Poesie". Currently, he teaches at Brooklyn College, where he was honored as a Distinguished Professor of English in 2016.
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and Nobel Prize in Literature winner, who was highly revered as "France's greatest contemporary man of letters" and "judged the greatest French writer of this century". His works explored freedom and empowerment in the face of puritanical constraints, and his self-exploratory texts reflected his search for how to be fully oneself, including owning one's sexual nature while still remaining true to one's values. Gide's career spanned from the symbolist movement to the advent of anticolonialism between World Wars I and II, and his political activity culminated in his repudiation of communism after his 1936 trip to the USSR.
Susan Isaacs
Susan Isaacs is an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter. She is most well known for her debut novel, Compromising Positions, which was adapted into a film in 1985. Her other works include Shining Through, Almost Paradise, After All These Years, and Any Place I Hang My Hat. Along with being a novelist, she is also a prolific essayist and has been published in magazines like The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. She has also penned many screenplays for the movies Big and Crazy in Alabama, among others.
Merrill Markoe
Merrill Markoe [citation needed] is an American author, television writer, and occasional standup comedian.
Gen Urobuchi
Gen Urobuchi is a prolific Japanese novelist, visual novel writer and anime screenwriter who is best known for his work on the highly acclaimed anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica, for which he won the Tokyo Anime Award for Best Scriptwriter. Additionally, Urobuchi has written for various other successful works such as Saya no Uta, Psycho-Pass, Fate/Zero and Kamen Rider Gaim. His works have earned three Newtype Anime Awards for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero and Psycho-Pass: The Movie. Urobuchi currently works at Nitroplus and Nitro+chiral.
William S. Burroughs Jr.
William Seward Burroughs III was an American novelist from the famous Burroughs family. He wrote three novels, two of which were published. In 1976 he underwent a liver transplant after developing cirrhosis, but he eventually passed away in 1981 at the age of 33 due to alcoholism and liver failure. He appears in the documentary "Burroughs: The Movie" where he discussed his childhood, family relationships, and liver problems. John Giorno famously called him "the last beatnik."
Esther Freud
Esther Freud is a British novelist of international acclaim. Her writing has been translated into 28 languages and has received numerous awards, including the Virginia Prize for Fiction and being longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, and has written several books that explore aspects of the human psyche in a very personal way. Her novels often feature themes of pain, love, passion, identity, and the need for connection. In addition to fiction, she has also written plays, short stories, and even a children’s book. Her work has been acclaimed for its depth, humor, and insightfulness, and it has been praised for its ability to touch the hearts of readers.
Luke Short (writer)
Luke Short was a popular Western writer. At least nine of his novels were made into films.
Theresa Rebeck
Theresa Rebeck is an acclaimed American playwright, television writer and novelist. Her works, which cover Broadway, Off-Broadway, film, and television, have been recognised with awards including the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award and the Alex Awards. Rebeck has also received the Athena Film Festival Award for Excellence as a Playwright and Author of Films, Books, and Television. She is known for her feminist-influenced works, which have been credited with inspiring a new generation of American playwrights.
David Gerrold
David Gerrold is an American science fiction screenwriter and novelist known for writing the script for the original Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", creating the Sleestak race on the TV series Land of the Lost, and writing the novelette "The Martian Child", which won both Hugo and Nebula Awards and was adapted into a 2007 film starring John Cusack.
Paul Levine
Paul J. Levine is an American author of crime fiction, particularly legal thrillers. He has written two series of books - the Jake Lassiter series, which follow a former football player turned Miami lawyer, and the Solomon vs. Lord series, featuring two bickering lawyers from Miami who become law partners and lovers. Levine is also known for his 20 episodes of the television drama series JAG and for the 2002 CBS series First Monday, which was inspired by one of his novels. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Miami School of Law, and was a reporter for the Miami Herald and an attorney in Florida for 17 years before becoming an author.
Jennifer Donnelly
Jennifer Donnelly is an American writer of young adult fiction. Her most famous work, A Northern Light (also known as A Gathering Light in the UK), won the 2003 Carnegie Medal and was included in Time Magazine's 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time in 2015. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Medal, the book was selected to be part of a ballot for the public to choose their all-time favorite. Donnelly is acclaimed for her riveting and powerful stories.
Douglas Kenney
Douglas Clark Francis Kenney was a multi-talented American comedy writer best known for his contributions to National Lampoon magazine and films such as Animal House and Caddyshack. He co-founded the magazine in 1970 and went on to write, produce and perform in some of its most successful projects. Despite success at a young age, Kenney tragically died at 33.
Tomás Rivera
Tomás Rivera was a Mexican American author, poet, and educator born to migrant farm workers in Texas. Through education, he achieved social mobility, earning a degree from the University of Oklahoma and a Doctor of Philosophy. His novella, ...and the Earth Did Not Devour Him, won the Premio Quinto Sol award. Rivera taught high school and later at universities and was the chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, the first Mexican-American to hold such a position.
Ayelet Waldman
Ayelet Waldman is an Israeli-American novelist and essayist, best known for her series of seven mystery novels entitled The Mommy-Track Mysteries, as well as four other novels and autobiographical essays about motherhood. Drawing on her experience as a federal public defender, Waldman's fiction reflects her legal background.