Ian Frazier (born 1951 in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S ...

) is an American writer and humorist. He wrote the 1989 non-fiction history ''Great Plains'', 2010's non-fiction travelogue ''Travels in Siberia'', and works as a writer and humorist for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''.

Biography

Frazier grew up in

Hudson, Ohio Hudson is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,110 at the 2020 census. It is a suburban community in the Akron metropolitan statistical area and the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, ...

.Humorist Ian Frazier, who grew up in Hudson, Ohio, wins another Thurber award
. October 6, 2009. ''

The Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of M ...

''. Retrieved via Cleveland.com, November 10, 2018. His father, David Frazier, was a chemist,"Ian Frazier." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2017. Retrieved via ''Biography In Context'' database, November 10, 2018. who worked for Sohio; his mother, Peggy, was a teacher, as well as an amateur actor and director, who performed in and directed plays in local Ohio theaters. He graduated from

Western Reserve Academy , motto_translation = Light and Truth , address = 115 College Street , city = Hudson , state = Ohio , zipcode = 44236-2999 , country = Unite ...

in 1969 and from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

in 1973.

Writing career

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' critic James Gorman described Frazier's 1996 humor collection ''Coyote v. Acme'' (in the title piece,

Wile E. Coyote Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of animated cartoons, first appearing in 1949 in the theatrical cartoon short '' Fast and Furry-ous''. In each episode, ...

is suing Acme Corporation, the manufacturer of products such as explosives and rocket-propelled devices purchased by the coyote to aid in hunting the Road Runner; these products always backfire disastrously) as the occasion for "irrepressible laughter in the reader." Gorman rates Frazier's first collection, 1986's ''Dating Your Mom'', as "one of the best collections of humor ever published."

Awards

*1989

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and ...

*1997 Thurber Prize for American Humor, for essay collection ''Coyote vs. Acme'' *2009 Thurber Prize for American Humor, for essay collection ''Lamentations of the Father''Hartig, Jean (2010). "Thurber House." ''Poets & Writers Magazine''. Vol. 38, no. 2. p. 133 f. Retrieved via ''Literature Resource Center'' database, November 10, 2018.

Bibliography

References

External links

* *
Ian Frazier articles for Outside Magazine

Ian Frazier articles at Byliner

Ian Frazier on NPR for ''Travels in SIberia''

Ian Frazier at FSGProfile at The Whiting Foundation
*
Interview with Ian Frazier
on

WFMU WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey. Since 1998 its studios and operating facilities have been headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. It broadcasts locally at 91.1 Mhz FM, i ...

's "The Speakeasy with Dorian" (

RealAudio RealAudio, or also spelled as Real Audio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fi ...

)
Review of ''Gone to New York''
* Select the RealAudio link b
"LAMENTATIONS OF A FATHER"
at time 28:42 to hear Ian Frazier read his "Laws Concerning Food and Drink; Household Principles; Lamentations of the Father" on the January 24, 1998 ''Prairie Home Companion'' broadcast. * The famous mock-legal complain

to which a lawyer made thi

* Lambert, Craig (September–October 2008)
"Seriously Funny: Ian Frazier combines an historian's discipline with an original comic mind"
''

Harvard Magazine ''Harvard Magazine'' is an independently edited magazine and separately incorporated affiliate of Harvard University. Aside from ''The Harvard Crimson'', it is the only publication covering the entire university, and also regularly distributed t ...

''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Frazier, Ian 1951 births Living people The Harvard Lampoon alumni People from Hudson, Ohio The New Yorker people The New Yorker staff writers Writers from Ohio American humorists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Journalists from Ohio 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers Western Reserve Academy alumni 21st-century American male writers Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters