Anthony V. Ardizzone (born 1949 in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, United States) 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 other ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single 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 old ...

writer, and editor.

Biography

Ardizzone was raised on the North Side of Chicago. He graduated from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

, in 1971 and from

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a Public university, public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized progr ...

with an MFA in 1975. In 1973 he also did a year of study at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

. He taught at Saint Mary's Center for Learning (Chicago),

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (ODU) is a Public university, public research university in Norfolk, Virginia, United States. Established in 1930 as the two-year Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary, it began by educating people with fewer ...

, and

Vermont College Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level college affiliated with California Institute of the Arts. It offers Master's degrees in a low-residency format. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award wi ...

Norwich University Norwich University is a private university in Northfield, Vermont, United States. The university was founded in 1819 as the "American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy". It is the oldest of six senior military college, senior militar ...

. In 1985, he taught at

Mohammed V University Mohammed V University (, ) is a public university in Rabat, Morocco. It was founded in 1957 under a royal decree ( Dahir). It is the first modern university in Morocco after the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez. It is named after Mohammed V of ...

Rabat, Morocco Rabat (, also , ; ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. It is also the capital city of the Rabat-Salé ...

. His work appeared in

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Bost ...

. He served on the board of directors of the

Association of Writers & Writing Programs The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) is a nonprofit literary organization that provides support, advocacy, resources, and community to nearly 50,000 writers, 500 college and university creative writing programs, and 125 writers' c ...

. Ardizzone is a Chancellor's Professor in the MFA program at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

, and lives in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in Monroe County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. The population was 79,168 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-most populous city in Indiana and ...

Awards

* 1986

Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction is an annual prize awarded by the University of Georgia Press in to a North American writer in a blind-judging contest for a collection of English language short stories. The collection is subsequently ...

for ''The Evening News'' * 1992 Milkweed National Fiction Prize for ''Larabi's Ox: Stories of Morocco.'' * 1992 Chicago Foundation for Literature Award for Fiction for ''Larabi's Ox: Stories of Morocco.'' * 1986 Virginia Prize for Fiction, for ''Heart of the Order'' * Lawrence Foundation Award * Bruno Arcudi Literature Prize * Prairie Schooner Readers' Choice Award * Black Warrior Review Literary Award in Fiction * Cream City Review Editors' Award in Nonfiction *

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 feder ...

Fellowship

Novels

* ''The Whale Chaser'' (Academy Chicago Publishers, 2010) * In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu (Picador USA/St. Martin's Press, 1999) (trade paperback edition 2000 MacMillan) * Heart of the Order (Henry Holt and Company, 1986) * In the Name of the Father (novel) (Doubleday & Company, 1978)

Short story collections

* Taking it Home: Stories from the Neighborhood (The University of Illinois Press, 1996) * Larabi's Ox: Stories of Morocco (Milkweed Editions, 1992) * The Evening News (stories) (University of Georgia Press, 1986)
"Cavaduzzo’s of Cicero", AGNI, 1999

Anthologies

* * * *

Editor

* * * ''Intro 11 (anthology of fiction and poetry)''. Norfolk: Associated Writing Programs, 1980. *

The "Waxing the Floor Metaphor"

In addition to his extensive work as a creative writing instructor, Tony Ardizzone is widely acknowledged to be the originator of the "Wax The Floor Metaphor" for fiction writing, a well-known model for the drafting process of a literary work. Ardizzone's model differs from others' in key ways (certain imagery and performative embellishments used) but is considered by many to be the purest, most authentic version. The metaphor essentially advises students of creative writing to work in stages of complete drafts from beginning to end. Just as it would be ill-advised for a janitor to sweep, mop, wax and buff a single square of a tile floor before moving on to the next and repeating the process, students are warned with this model not to spend time editing and polishing individual paragraphs and chapters before the first draft has been completed and "the entire picture laid out," as novelist

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

once put it.

References

External links

"Tony Ardizzone", ''Indiana University''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ardizzone, Tony 1949 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Bowling Green State University alumni Bowling Green State University faculty Indiana University faculty Academic staff of Mohammed V University Old Dominion University faculty University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Writers from Chicago 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Illinois Novelists from Virginia Novelists from Indiana Novelists from Ohio