Michael Lowenthal
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Michael Lowenthal, an American fiction writer, is the
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 ...
of four novels, most recently ''The Paternity Test'' (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012). Currently an instructor of creative writing at
Lesley University Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1909 to educate teachers. Originally founded as a women's college, male students were admitted beginning in 2005. History 1909–1998 Th ...
, he has been the recipient of fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Wesleyan writers' conferences, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, and the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers. His short stories have appeared in literary journals and magazines including ''The Kenyon Review, Tin House,'' and ''Esquire.'' Lowenthal grew up near Washington, D.C. and graduated from
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...
in 1990 as a class
valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...
. During his speech, he revealed that he was Dartmouth's first openly gay valedictorian. ''
The Dartmouth Review ''The Dartmouth Review'' is a right wing newspaper at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States, originally with conservative roots. I Founded in 1980 by a number of staffers from the college's daily newspaper, ''The Dartmouth, ...
'' said that he singlehandedly ruined the graduation ceremony; however, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' reported that this statement earned him a
standing ovation A standing ovation is a form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding, often after extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim. Standing ovations are considered to be a special honor. Often they are ...
. He was awarded the
Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize The Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize is an American literary award, presented to two writers, one male and one female, from the LGBT community to honour their body of work. First presented by the Saints and Sinners Literary Fe ...
by the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in 2009. In 2014/15 he was a Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the
University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...
's Institute for American Studies in
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, Germany.


Charity Girl

Lowenthal told ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' that he wrote ''Charity Girl'' because he happened to be reading
Susan Sontag Susan Lee Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on "Camp", Notes on 'Ca ...
's book ''AIDS and Its Metaphors,'' and was intrigued by a reference to the quarantining during WWI of American women diagnosed with venereal diseases. He discovered that 15,000 young women had been summarily sent to detention centers for the duration, and wrote his first historical novel about such a girl.


Published works

* ''The Same Embrace'' ( Dutton, 1998) * '' Avoidance'' (
Graywolf Press Graywolf Press is an independent, non-profit publisher located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Graywolf Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Graywolf Press collaborates with organizations such as the College of Saint Benedict, the Mel ...
, 2002) * ''Charity Girl'' (
Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...
, 2007) * ''The Paternity Test'' (
University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a Non-profit organization, non-profit university press publishing Peer review, peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic comm ...
, 2012) *''Sex with Strangers'' (University of Wisconsin Pres, 2021)


References


External links


Author Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowenthal, Michael 1969 births 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American gay writers American LGBTQ novelists American male novelists Boston College faculty Dartmouth College alumni Lesley University faculty Living people Novelists from Massachusetts