Ben Fountain (born 1958) is an American writer currently living in
New Bern
New Bern, formerly Newbern, is a city in Craven County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. It had a population of 31,291 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is located at the confluence of the Neuse River, Neuse a ...
,
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
. He has won many awards including a PEN/Hemingway Award for ''Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories'' (2007) and the
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange and Durham County, North Carolina, Durham counties, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 United States census, making Chapel Hill the List of municipa ...
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
town in eastern North Carolina. His family moved to Cary, near
Raleigh
Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...
, when he was 13. Fountain earned a B.A. in English from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...
While collecting articles about things he was interested in, Fountain was riveted by
Haiti
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
, regarding it "like a laboratory, almost ... Everything that’s gone on in the last five hundred years—
colonialism
Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...
, race, power, politics, ecological disasters — it’s all there in very concentrated form. And also I just felt, viscerally, pretty comfortable there." Speaking little French, let alone
Haitian Creole
Haitian Creole (; , ; , ), or simply Creole (), is a French-based creole languages, French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it ...
, he went for his first trip abroad there in 1991 and at least thirty more times. From this came four of the best regarded stories in his 2006 breakthrough collection of short stories: ''Brief Encounters With Che Guevara'' when Fountain was forty-eight. He has won numerous awards and inclusion of his work in ''New Stories from the South: The Year's Best'' (2006).
Fountain's debut novel, '' Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk'', was released in early May 2012.
Ang Lee
Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. His films are known for their emotional charge and exploration of repressed, hidden emotions. During his career, he has received international critical and popular acclaim and List o ...
directed a film adaptation, '' Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk'', which began filming in 2015 and was released in November 2016.
Personal life
Fountain married Sharon (née Monahan), an attorney, in 1985; they met when both were students at Duke University School of Law. They have two children.
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States.
Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...
Goodreads Choice Awards
The Goodreads Choice Awards is a yearly award program, first launched on Goodreads in 2009.
Winners are determined by crowdvoting, users voting on books that Goodreads has nominated or books of their choosing, released in the given year. Most boo ...
(fiction) finalist for ''Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk''
* 2012 ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize (fiction), ''Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk''
* 2012
National Book Award
The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".
* 2012
Specsavers National Book Awards
The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by ''The Bookseller''. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the Na ...
(International Author of the Year) shortlist for ''Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk''
* 2013 Chautauqua Prize, shortlist, ''Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk''
* 2013 Dayton Literary Peace Prize (fiction), runner-up, ''Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk''
Bibliography
Books
* ''Brief Encounters with Che Guevara'' (Ecco, 2006, )
* '' Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk'' (Ecco, 2012, )
* ''Beautiful Country Burn Again'' (Ecco, 2018, )
* ''Devil Makes Three'' (Flatiron, 2023)