Ethan Andrew Canin (born July 19, 1960) is an American author, educator, and

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. He is a member of the faculty of the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative ...

at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 co ...

. Canin was born in

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

, while his parents were vacationing from

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

, where his father,

Stuart Canin Stuart Canin (born 1926 in New York City) is an American violinist and conductor. On December 30, 1936, at the age of 10, he performed on the Fred Allen radio hour.Alex Walsh, "STUART CANIN: "...An Excellent Violinist." — Harry Truman," Dec. 10, ...

, taught violin at the

. He and his family moved around the midwestern and northeastern United States, and eventually settled in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, where he attended Town School and later graduated from

San Francisco University High School San Francisco University High School is a private college preparatory high school located in San Francisco, California. The school was opened in 1975. Facilities and campus The school is made up of four buildings, commonly referred to as Upper, ...

. He attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

and earned an

undergraduate degree An undergraduate degree (also called first degree or simply degree) is a colloquial term for an academic degree earned by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. In the United States, it is usually offered at an institution of higher e ...

in English. Returning to the University of Iowa, Canin entered the

, receiving an MFA in 1984, and went on to attend

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is cons ...

, where he earned an M.D. in 1991. Beginning his medical practice with a residency at the

University of California San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It condu ...

, he pursued both medicine and writing for several years, leaving medicine in 1995 to join the faculty of the

, where he still teaches. He is a co-founder of the

San Francisco Writers Grotto The San Francisco Writers Grotto (sometimes referred to as "The Grotto") is a writers' coworking space in San Francisco’s SOMA district. Founded in 1993 by writers Po Bronson, Ethan Canin and Ethan Watters, the Writers Grotto is a community of wo ...

. Married with three daughters, Canin is of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

background.

Awards

*The Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship (1986) *Henfield/Transatlantic Review Prize (1987) *The California Book Award/Gold Medal in Literature (1994) *The Lyndhurst Prize (1994–1996) *

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Fellowship (1987 & 1996) *

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

(2010)

Writing

Short story collections

*''Emperor of the Air'' (1985) *''The Palace Thief'' (1994)

Novels

*''Blue River'' (1992) Time Warner International *''

For Kings and Planets ''For Kings and Planets'' is a 1999 novel by Ethan Canin. Plot The story centers around the friendship of two college students at Columbia University and follows them from their freshman year in 1974 to their adult lives in the late 1990s. Orno ...

'' (1999) Saint Martin's press Inc. *'' Carry Me Across the Water'' (2001) Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. *''America America'' (2009) Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. *''A Doubter's Almanac: A Novel'' (2016) Random House

Filmography

Several of Canin's novels and short stories have been adapted for film.

Short films

*''Emperor of the Air'' (1996) dir.

Ali Selim Ali Selim (born 1960/1961) is an American film and television director. Over the past fifteen years he has directed over 850 television commercials, five half-hour documentaries and several music videos. Early life Selim was born in Saint Paul ...

Feature films

*'' Blue River'' (1995) dir. Larry Elikann, based on the novel of the same name *'' The Emperor's Club'' (2002) dir. Michael Hoffman, based on the 1994 short story "The Palace Thief" *''

Beautiful Ohio "Beautiful Ohio" is the official song of the U.S. State of Ohio. History The first lyrics were written in 1918 by Ballard MacDonald and the music by Robert A. "Bobo" King, who used the pseudonym Mary Earl. The melody is partly based on " Song o ...

'' (2006) dir.

Chad Lowe Charles Davis Lowe II (born January 15, 1968) is an American actor. He is the younger brother of actor Rob Lowe. He won an Emmy Award for his supporting role in '' Life Goes On'' as a young man living with HIV. He has had recurring roles on '' ...

, based on the 1994 short story "Batorsag and Szerelem" *''

The Year of Getting to Know Us ''The Year of Getting to Know Us'' is a 2008 American comedy-drama film directed by Patrick Sisam and starring Tom Arnold, Jimmy Fallon, Lucy Liu and Sharon Stone. It premiered on January 24, 2008 at the Sundance Film Festival. Premise Christoph ...

'' (2008) dir. Patrick Sisam, based on the 1988 story "Star Food" and the 1987 story "The Year of Getting to Know Us"

References

Notes

External links

Ethan Canin's Official Web Site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Canin, Ethan 20th-century American novelists Physicians from Iowa University of Iowa alumni Harvard Medical School alumni Writers from Ann Arbor, Michigan Writers from San Francisco Stanford University alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty 1960 births Living people 21st-century American novelists American male novelists University of California, San Francisco alumni 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Michigan Novelists from Iowa