Randall Silvis is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while othe ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, and

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

Life

Born in Madison Township, Clarion County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

, he was educated at

Clarion University Pennsylvania Western University, Clarion, also known as PennWest Clarion, is a public university campus in Clarion, Pennsylvania. Part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), the institution was founded in 1867 and offers ...

and

Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) is a public research university in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. As of fall 2021, the university enrolled 7,044 undergraduates and 1,865 postgraduates, for a total enrollment of 9,009 students. The uni ...

. In 2008, Silvis was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from Indiana University of Pennsylvania for "a sustained career of distinguished literary achievement."

Awards

He won the

Drue Heinz Literature Prize The Drue Heinz Literature Prize is a major American literary award for short fiction in the English language. This prize of the University of Pittsburgh Press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States was initiated in 1981 by Drue Heinz ...

in 1984 for his first book, selected by Joyce Carol Oates. He is the recipient of two fellowships from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federa ...

and a Fulbright Senior Scholar Research Award, plus six fellowship awards from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for his fiction, drama, and screenwriting. His novels '' An Occasional Hell'' and ''Two Days Gone'' were finalists for the Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime writing from the International Association of Crime writers, and two of his short stories were nominated for a Pushcart Award. ''Two Days Gone'' and ''Only the Rain'' were both Amazon #1 Bestsellers in psychological suspense.

Books

* ''The Luckiest Man in the World'', short stories (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1984, winner of Drue Heinz Literature Prize). * ''Excelsior'', novel (New York: Henry Holt, 1988). * ''Under the Rainbow'', novel (Sag Harbor: Permanent Press, 1993). * ''An Occasional Hell'', novel (Sag Harbor: Permanent Press, 1993). * ''Dead Man Falling'', novel (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1996). * ''Mysticus'', novel (Los Angeles: Wolfhawk Books, 1999). * ''On Night's Shore'', novel (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2000). * ''Disquiet Heart'', novel (New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 2002). Also published as Doubly Dead, novel (2004) * ''North of Unknown: Mina Hubbard's Extraordinary Expedition into the Labrador Wilderness'', nonfiction (New York: The Lyons Press, 2005). Originally published as ''Heart So Hungry'' (Knopf Canada 2004) * ''In a Town Called Mundomuerto'', novel (Omnidawn Books, 2007) * ''Hangtime, A Confession'', novel (Kitsune Books, 2009) * ''The Boy Who Shoots Crows'', novel (Penguin/Berkley, 2011) * ''Flying Fish'', novel (PS Publishing UK, 2012) * ''Blood & Ink'', novel (Kindle Scout, 2015) * ''Two Days Gone'', novel (Sourcebooks, 2017) * ''Only the Rain'', novel (Thomas & Mercer, 2017) * ''Walking the Bones'', novel (Sourcebooks, 2018) * ''First the Thunder'', novel (Thomas & Mercer, 2018) * ''A Long Way Down'', novel (Sourcebooks, 2019) * ''No Woods So Dark as These,'' novel (Sourcebooks, 2020) * ''My Secret Life,'' short story collection (Two Suns Books, 2021) * ''From the Mirror, Reflections on Living, Writing, and Dying Well,'' memoir (Two Suns Books, 2021) * ''Marguerite & the Moon Man,'' novel (Amazon Vella, 2021) * ''When All Light Fails,'' novel (Sourcebooks, 2021) * ''The Deepest Black,'' novel (Sourcebooks, 2022)

References

* ''Contemporary Authors Online''. The Gale Group, 2006. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000091276. {{DEFAULTSORT:Silvis, Randall 1950 births Living people Writers from Pittsburgh American male novelists Novelists from Pennsylvania People from Clarion County, Pennsylvania Clarion University of Pennsylvania alumni