Morgan City, Louisiana
Morgan City is a small city in St. Mary and lower St. Martin parishes in the U.S. State of Louisiana. The population was 12,404 at the 2010 census. Known for being “right in the middle of everywhere”, Morgan City is located 68 miles (109&nb ...
) is a
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 ...
and
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
writer.
His writing has appeared in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...
'', ''
Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of '' The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in ...
'', ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
SIBA Book Award
Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize (formerly the SEBA Book Award and SIBA Book Award) is an literary award given by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA). It was first awarded in 1999.Summer, Bob (1999). "SEBA presents first book awards ...
and the 2003 Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association Award. He also won the 2005
John Dos Passos Prize
The John Dos Passos Prize is an annual literary award given to American writers.
The Prize was founded at Longwood University
Longwood University is a public university in Farmville, Virginia. Founded in 1839, it is the third-oldest public un ...
.
Gautreaux also authored '' Same Place, Same Things'' and '' Welding with Children'' — collections of short stories. His 2009 novel ''The Missing'' was described as his "best yet" by
Times-Picayune
''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...
'' book editor Susan Larson in a featured article.
Gautreaux notes that his family's blue-collar background has been a significant influence on his writing. His father was a tugboat captain, and his grandfather was a steamboat engineer. Given those influences, he says, "I pride myself in writing a 'broad-spectrum' fiction, fiction that appeals to both intellectuals and blue-collar types. Many times I've heard stories of people who don't read short stories, or people who have technical jobs, who like my fiction."
Gautreaux also tends to write from experience or what he knows. He argues an author should have a good understanding or background history over what he intends to write about, "just learned along the way that writing comes from living. Living doesn't come
from writing. The best way to learn how to write about children is to have a couple
of your own. You have to go through the struggle of raising them."
In addition, Gautreaux has made clear that he is not interested in being classified as a "Southern writer," preferring instead to say that he is a "writer who happens to live in the South." He is much more comfortable embracing his Roman Catholicism, saying, "I've always been a Roman Catholic, since baptism, since birth."
Gautreaux is married to Winborne Howell Gautreaux; the couple has two grown sons – Robert Timothy Gautreaux and Thomas Martin Gautreaux.See information from Peoplesearch.com and Scanlan, ''supra''. They live in
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, it also extends into Marion County, Tennessee, Marion County on its west ...
L. Lamar Nisly
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...