Description:

Chicago-born Peter Orner is the author of seven books, the memoirs/ essay collections, Still No Word from You, a finalist for the PEN: Diamonstein/ Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay and Am I Alone Here?, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as the story collection, Maggie Brown and Others, a New York Times Notable Book, and the novel, Love and Shame and Love, winner of the California Book Award. Other books include, Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge, The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo (finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), and Esther Stories, (finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award). Peter is also the editor of three books of oral history for the McSweeney's/ Voice of Witness series, Underground America, Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives, and Lavil, an oral history of Port-au-Prince. His work has been awarded four Pushcart Prizes and has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper's the Paris Review. Peter is a recipient of the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Currently, he's chair of the English and Creative Writing Department at Dartmouth College. He lives in Norwich, Vermont.