Stuart Dybek (born April 10, 1942) is an American writer of fiction and poetry.

Biography

Dybek, a second-generation

Polish American Polish Americans ( pl, Polonia amerykańska) are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 9.15 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.83 ...

, was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

and raised in Chicago's Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods in the 1950s and early 1960s. He graduated from St. Rita of Cascia High School in 1959 and earned an MFA from 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 W ...

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 col ...

. He has an MA in literature from Loyola University Chicago. Often compared to

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only w ...

and

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...

for his unique portrayal of setting and landscapes, Dybek is "among the first writers of Polish descent (who write about the ethnic self) to receive national recognition." After teaching for more than 30 years at

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

, where he remains an Adjunct Professor of English and a member of the permanent faculty of the Prague Summer Program, Dybek became the Distinguished Writer in Residence at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

where he teaches at the School of Professional Studies.

Work

Dybek's two collections of poems are ''Brass Knuckles'' (1979) and ''Streets in Their Own Ink'' (2004). His fiction includes ''Childhood and Other Neighborhoods'', ''The Coast of Chicago'', '' I Sailed With Magellan'', a novel-in-stories, ''Paper Lantern: Love Stories'', and ''Ecstatic Cahoots: Fifty Short Stories''. His work has been anthologized and has appeared in magazines such as '' Harper's'', ''

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 ...

'', '' Atlantic Monthly'', ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

'', ''

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer of 1998. He enlisted Holly MacArt ...

'', '' Ploughshares'', and ''Triquarterly''. His collection, ''The Coast of Chicago'', was selected as a New York Times Notable Book and cited as an American Library Association Notable Book of 2005. A story from ''I Sailed With Magellan'', titled "Breasts," appears in the 2004 ''

Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of '' The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in co ...

''. Dybek was a participant in the Michigan Writers Series at Michigan State University, where he read from his work.

Awards

Dybek's awards include a Lannan Prize, a

PEN/Malamud Award The PEN/Malamud Award and Memorial Reading honors "excellence in the art of the short story", and is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. The selection committee is composed of PEN/Faulkner directors and representatives of Bernard Ma ...

(1995), a Whiting Award (1985), a Guggenheim fellowship, and an

O. Henry Award The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...

. Dybek was awarded a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

on September 25, 2007.MacArthur Fellows announced
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Bibliography

Novels and short story collections

* * * * *

Poetry collections

* * Pelligro

Short stories and essays

* "''Prayer''" , X-1 Experimental Fiction Project , The Smith: 1976 , 49-52 * *

References

External links

Profile at The Whiting Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dybek, Stuart American male poets 1942 births Living people Loyola University Chicago alumni University of Iowa alumni Western Michigan University faculty Northern Michigan University faculty Northwestern University faculty Writers from Michigan Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Polish-American culture in Chicago MacArthur Fellows American people of Polish descent O. Henry Award winners PEN/Malamud Award winners