Marc Anthony Richardson (born December 7, 1972) is an American novelist and artist. He won an

American Book Award The American Book Awards are an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "t ...

and a Creative Capital Award.

Life and work

Born in

Elkins Park, Pennsylvania Elkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the northern suburbs outside of Philadelphia, which it borders along Cheltenham Avenue roug ...

, Richardson was raised in the

West Oak Lane West Oak Lane is a neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The neighborhood was developed primarily between the early 1920s and late 1930s, with the areas near to Cedarbrook constructed after World War II. At the nor ...

section of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

by his mother, Betty Jean Richardson (née Williams), and his father, Malcolm Anthony Richardson. He is the youngest of their three sons. In 1991, he graduated from the

Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, commonly known as CAPA, is a magnet school in South Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the edge of the Christian Street Historic District. It is a part of the School Distr ...

(where he won awards for illustration), and went on to earn his BFA from

Antioch College Antioch College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection and began operating in 1852 as a non-secta ...

(where he studied with Martia Golden and was a finalist for the 1994 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers). He earned his MFA from

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

(where he studied with Micheline Aharonian Marcom and was a nominee for Best New American Voice 2010). For over two decades, Richardson worked as a direct-care, social service counselor in day schools and group homes for disadvantaged youth in the Bay Area, in New York City group homes for adults with intellectual disabilities, and in Philadelphia public schools, exclusively as a therapeutic support counselor in low-income, African-American communities. Prior to Mills, he worked as an illustrator and a nude model. Though an exceptional freestyle dancer, he focused on art. He briefly studied classical drawing, painting, and printmaking at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

on a partial scholarship, but returned to writing because of a lack of funding. ''Year of the Rat'', his debut novel, won the 2015 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize. In 2017, it was awarded an

from the

Before Columbus Foundation The Before Columbus Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 by Ishmael Reed, "dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature". The Foundation makes annual awards for books published in ...

, founded by

Ishmael Reed Ishmael Scott Reed (born February 22, 1938) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, composer, playwright, editor and publisher known for his Satire, satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known wor ...

. The ceremony took place at the San Francisco Jazz Center and was televised on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

. ''Year of the Rat'', a

Künstlerroman A ''Künstlerroman'' (; plural ''-ane''), meaning "artist's novel" in English, is a narrative about an artist's growth to maturity.Werlock, James P. (2010The Facts on File companion to the American short story Volume 2, p.387 It could be classifie ...

, draws heavily from his personal experiences, as well as from those of his family members, past and present, delving into philosophical rants, poetry, social satire, and ribald, phantasmagoric language. Over the course of a decade, many of the incidents written in the book were freshly experienced by the author, such as his father's death and the near-death accounts of his mother and himself. ''Year of the Rat'' was published on her 72nd birthday, the day of her successful heart surgery. Initially, one reviewer wrote that "the book is certainly unique in voice and style, but it’s also frightening, ugly, dense, and borderline offensive...it will make all but the most experimental of readers throw it across a room." ''Messiahs,'' a

speculative Speculative may refer to: In arts and entertainment *Speculative art (disambiguation) *Speculative fiction, which includes elements created out of human imagination, such as the science fiction and fantasy genres ** Speculative Fiction Group, a Pe ...

novel, fixes on an anonymous couple, an Asian American woman and an African American man. The man volunteered imprisonment on behalf of his wrongfully convicted nephew, yet―after over two years on death row―was "exonerated". In this dystopian society, proxies are allowed on death row in place of their convicted kin, as acts of holy reform. The initiative is based on the

Passion of Christ The Passion (from latin language, Latin , "to suffer, bear, endure") is the short final period before the death of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels. It is commemorated in Christianity every year during Holy ...

. It was nominated as a fiction finalist for the 2021 Big Other Book Award. Richardson was also a recipient of a

PEN America PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide th ...

grant, a Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright fellowship, an Art Omi residency, a

Vermont Studio Center The Vermont Studio Center (VSC) is a non-profit arts organization located in the town of Johnson, Vermont. It conducts the largest fine arts and writing residency program in the United States, with a significant population of international artis ...

residency, and was an Andrew W. Mellon Scholar-in-residence at

Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...

in Makhanda, South Africa. His work has appeared in '' Conjunctions'', ''

Callaloo Callaloo ( , ; many spelling variants, such as kallaloo, calaloo, calalloo, calaloux, or callalloo) is a plant used in popular dishes in many Caribbean countries, while for other Caribbean countries, a stew made with the plant is called call ...

'', ''

Black Warrior Review ''Black Warrior Review (BWR)'' is a non-profit American literary magazine founded in 1974 and based at the University of Alabama. It is the oldest continuously run literary journal by graduate students in the United States. Published in print bi ...

'', ''Western Humanities Review'', and the Anthology ''Who Will Speak for America?'' from

Temple University Press Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...

. He taught at

Rutgers University–New Brunswick Rutgers University–New Brunswick is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in New Brunswick and Piscataway. It is the oldest campu ...

, the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, and currently teaches at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

. In 2021, Richardson received a Creative Capital Award and a Sachs Program Grant for Arts Innovation for his work-in-progress, ''The Serpent Will Eat Whatever Is in the Belly of the Beast''. Concerning the Creative Capital Award, Richardson stated: "This award supports the artists who work with no limitations in mind, no allegiances―whose diverse experiences ''require'' divergent formats." In 2024, he received an Artist Practitioner Fellowship from the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA) at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

Honors and awards

2015 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize

2017 American Book Award

2021 Creative Capital Award

2021 Sachs Program Grant for Arts Innovation

2022 Andrew W. Mellon Scholar-in-Residence at Rhodes University

2023 Art Omi: May Writers Cohort

2024 Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA) Practitioner Fellowship

Publications

* * * ''The Serpent Will Eat Whatever Is in the Belly of the Beast'' (

Dalkey Archive Press Dalkey Archive Press is an American publisher of fiction, poetry, foreign translations and literary criticism specializing in the publication or republication of lesser-known, often avant-garde works. The company has offices in Funks Grove, Il ...

) forthcoming

References

External links

*
C-SPAN: American Book Awards 2017Entropy InterviewWXPN (88.5 FM) University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Scriptorium Reading, Sacramento, CA

Publishers Weekly reviewKirkus reviewCleaver Magazine review (noted in the National Book Critics Circle blog, Critical Mass)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Marc Anthony 1972 births Living people Artist authors Mills College alumni African-American novelists American male novelists Antioch College alumni American Book Award winners Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts alumni 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American writers African-American male writers