Victor LaValle

Victor LaValle
Born (1972-02-03) February 3, 1972
Occupation Author
Nationality American
Website
www.victorlavalle.com

Victor LaValle (born February 3, 1972) is an American author who was raised in the Flushing and Rosedale neighborhoods of Queens, New York. He is the author of a short-story collection, Slapboxing with Jesus and three novels, The Ecstatic, Big Machine and The Devil in Silver. LaValle writes fiction primarily, though he has also written essays and book reviews for GQ, Essence Magazine, The Fader, and The Washington Post, among others.

Slapboxing with Jesus was published in 1999 by Vintage Books. The eleven interconnected stories deal mostly with the lives of young black and Latino men living in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. The collection went on to receive wide critical praise. It won the author a PEN Open Book Award and the Key to Jamaica, Queens.

The Ecstatic was published in 2002 by Crown Publishing Group. The novel continues the story of Anthony James, a character from LaValle's collection of stories. Anthony is a morbidly obese college dropout who may also be experiencing the first signs of schizophrenia. The novel follows the exploits of his family, who are trying their best to save Anthony, but who might be in need of a little saving themselves. The subject matter is dark, and even shocking, but a gallows humor runs throughout. This book received even wider critical acclaim, earning comparisons to writers such as Ken Kesey, Chester Himes, and John Kennedy Toole. In 2003 the novel was a finalist for both the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.

Big Machine was published in 2009 by Spiegel & Grau. The novel tells the story of Ricky Rice, an ex-junkie survivor of a suicide cult whose life is changed when a mysterious letter arrives summoning him to a remote compound in Vermont. The novel was widely praised upon its release, making many national top ten lists. It also won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel in 2009, as well as the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and an American Book Award in 2010.

The Devil in Silver published by Spiegel & Grau August 21, 2012, is the story of Pepper, a sane man sent for observation to a mental hospital. There he encounters a monster roaming the nighttime halls. He teams up with some of the other inmates to fight the mental confusion of the drugs he is required to take, the staff, and the monster.

The Ballad of Black Tom was published by Tor on February 16, 2016.

LaValle graduated with a degree in English from Cornell University and a Master of Fine Arts Program of Creative Writing at Columbia University.

LaValle is an Assistant Professor and the Acting Fiction Director at the Columbia University School of the Arts. He lives in New York with his wife, novelist Emily Raboteau, son and daughter.

Awards and nominations

Works

Books

Essays

Notes

  1. ↑ "Programs - Letterenfonds". www.letterenfonds.nl. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
  2. ↑ Crowder, Courtney. LaValle's "Big Machine" wins Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, The Chicago Tribune, Chicago, 17 November 2010.
  3. ↑ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Victor LaValle". www.gf.org. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
  4. ↑ "ABA: The American Book Awards / Before Columbus Foundation". 13 March 2013. Archived from the original on March 13, 2013. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
  5. ↑ Nichols, John (22 December 2009). "MVPs of 2009". The Nation.
  6. ↑ "Best Books of 2009". publishersweekly.com. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Victor LaValle". unitedstatesartists.org. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
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