Donovan Hohn (born May 29, 1972

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

) is an American

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

essayist An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

, and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

Life

Donovan Hohn is the author of '' Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them'', the tale of the

Friendly Floatees Friendly Floatees are plastic bath toys (including rubber ducks) marketed by The First Years and made famous by the work of Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who models ocean currents on the basis of flotsam movements. Ebbesmeyer studied t ...

. He was raised in

. He graduated from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

, from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

with an MA, and from

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, with an MFA. A former English teacher, and a former senior editor of ''Harper's Magazine'', he was also the features editor of ''GQ''. His work has appeared in ''Harper’s Magazine'', ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''Outside'', and ''The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 2''.

Awards

* 2013

Knight-Wallace Fellowship The Knight-Wallace Fellowship (previously known as the NEH Journalism Fellowship and the Michigan Journalism Fellowship) is an award given to accomplished journalists at the University of Michigan. Knight-Wallace Fellowships are awarded to reporte ...

in Journalism * 2013 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award (runner-up) in General nonfictionPress release
"2013 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award"
/ref> * 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship * 2008

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, ...

* 2004 Hopwood Award for Essay * 2003 Hopwood Award for Poetry

Works

Books

*''Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them'' (2011)

Essays

"A Romance of Rust", ''Harper's'' (January 2005)"Moby-Duck", ''Harper's'' (January 2007)"Falling", ''Harper's'' (April 2008)
*

References

External links

*
Profile at The Whiting Foundation
* ttp://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/03/the-exchange-donovan-hohn-on-moby-duck.html Interview on ''The New Yorker's'' "Book Bench"br>Interview on NPR's "Fresh Air""Back story," ''Gawker''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hohn, Donovan American essayists Oberlin College alumni Boston University alumni University of Michigan alumni Writers from San Francisco Living people 1972 births