Writers in Residence - Spring Quarter 2002
Stuart Dybek
(Also, Spring Quarter 2001)
Mr. Dybek will teach "Image in Poetry and Fiction"
Native Chicagoan, Stuart Dybek, author of The Coast of Chicago (1990), Childhood and other Neighborhoods (1980) and Brass Knuckles (1979) is frequently classified as a "Chicago Writer" in the tradition of Nelson Algren and James T. Farrell. Much of Dybek's fiction addresses childhood and adolescent life in the immigrant, inner-city neighborhood of his own youth. His work can be surreal, gritty and occasionally violent. His verse and fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's. Dybek is currently a professor of English at Western Michigan University.
Richard Powers
Mr. Powers will teach "Techniques in Fiction: Narratology"
Richard Powers was born and raised in Chicago's northern suburbs, moved to Bangkok at age eleven, and back again to Illinois at age sixteen. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in literature at the University of Illinois at Champaign. His books include Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance (1985), Prisoner's Dilemma (1988), The Gold Bug Variations (1991), Operation Wandering Soul (1993), Galatea 2.2 (1995), Gain (1998) and Plowing the Dark. (2000).
Powers received the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award for best American fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a special citation from PEN/Hemingway Foundation and nomination for best novel award from National Book Critics Circle, all 1986; the "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation, 1989; National Book Critics Circle nomination for fiction, 1992; National Book Award nomination for fiction, 1993. Powers is currently Professor of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
