Ron Currie Jr. is an American author.

Background and education

Currie was raised in Waterville and lives in

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

. He attended

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

and withdrew before graduation.

Career

Currie's first book, '' God is Dead'', was published to critical acclaim in 2007, earning Currie comparisons to

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut ( ; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his Satire, satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfict ...

and

Raymond Carver Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. He published his first collection of stories, '' Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?'', in 1976. His breakout collection, '' What We Talk About ...

. ''God is Dead'' received the

Young Lions Fiction Award The Young Lions Fiction Award is an annual US literary prize of $10,000, awarded to a writer who is 35 years old or younger for a novel or collection of short stories. The award was established in 2001 by Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Rick ...

from the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

, as well as the Metcalf award from the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

. Critics praised the book's daring mix of dark humor and earnest sentiment. Andrew Ervin, writing in '' The Believer'', said "few authors would dare to depict the near rape and death of God amid a horrendous genocidal war, and fewer still could make it so bladder-threateningly hilarious." Bookpage said "Each of the chapter-length stories seem to have emerged from a fever dream, sampling alternate futures that spring up like mutant weeds." ''God is Dead'' was named a notable book of 2007 by the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

''. Currie published his first full-length novel, '' Everything Matters!'', in 2009. The winner of an Alex Award from the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

, ''Everything Matters!'' made several best-of lists for 2009, including the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'',

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, and Amazon.com. Writing in 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 ...

'', Janet Maslin called Currie a "startlingly talented writer" who "survives the inevitable, apt comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice of his own." Currie's third book, the novel ''Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles'', was published by

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

in February, 2013. ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' called it the writer's "most grounded work yet and perhaps his darkest." "Anything does seem possible in Currie's fantastical fiction...Currie's gorgeously questioning prose explores the deeper meanings things gain after they're gone." Currie's writing has won the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, the Addison M. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association. Currie is also a screenwriter, most recently working on the Apple TV+ series ''Extrapolations''.https://directories.wga.org/project/1220926/extrapolations/

Bibliography

* '' God Is Dead'' (2007) * '' Everything Matters!'' (2009) * ''Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles'' (2013) * ''The One-Eyed Man'' (2017) * ''The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne'' (2025)

References

External links

The New York ''Times'' review of ''Everything Matters!''

Currie reads in Bosphorus Art Project Quarterly

Ron Currie Lecture at University of Toledo, 20 September 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Currie, Ron 20th-century American novelists Clemson University alumni Living people 1975 births Date of birth missing (living people) People from Waterville, Maine American psychological fiction writers Novelists from Maine American male novelists American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers