André Aciman

André Aciman

André Aciman in 2009
Born January 2, 1951
Alexandria, Egypt[1]
Occupation writer
Period 1990s-2000s
Genre short story, novel, essay

André Aciman (born 2 January 1951 in Alexandria, Egypt)[1][2] is a writer, currently distinguished professor at the Graduate Center of City University of New York[3] teaching the history of literary theory and the works of Marcel Proust.[4] His memoir, Out of Egypt (1995), won a Whiting Award.[5] He previously taught creative writing at New York University and French literature at Princeton University.[2][6] In 2009 Aciman was Visiting Distinguished Writer at Wesleyan University.[7][8][9] His influences include Marcel Proust[10] and James Joyce.[11]

Aciman was born in Egypt in a French-speaking home where family members also spoke Italian, Greek, Ladino, and Arabic.[2] His family were Jews of Turkish and Italian origin who settled in Alexandria, Egypt in 1905.[6] Aciman moved with his family to Italy at the age of fifteen and then to New York at nineteen.[2]

He has a B.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Lehman College and an A.M. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University.

Out of Egypt

Aciman's 1995 memoir, Out of Egypt, was reviewed widely.[12][13] In The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani described the volume as a "remarkable memoir...that leaves the reader with a mesmerizing portrait of a now vanished world."[6] She compared his work with that of Lawrence Durrell and also wrote: "There are some wonderfully vivid scenes here, as strange and marvelous as something in Garcia Marquez, as comical and surprising as something in Chekhov."[6]

Awards

Works

Books

Essays and short fiction

References

  1. 1 2 Epstein, Joseph. "Funny, But I Do Look Jewish" at the Wayback Machine (archived December 18, 2005), The Weekly Standard December 15, 2003
  2. 1 2 3 4 Meet the author: Aciman says he's all his characters, Marin Independent Journal, May 24, 2008
  3. 1 2 3 4 "André Aciman". City University of New York. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  4. 1 2 3 "André Aciman". City University of New York. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  5. ↑ "Winners of Whiting Awards". The New York Times. 1995-10-30. p. C.15. Retrieved 2009-09-21. Andre Aciman, whose first book, Out of Egypt (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995), chronicles his childhood in Alexandria, Egypt.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Kakutani, Michiko (1994-12-27). "Books of the Times: Alexandria, and in Just One Volume". The New York Times. p. 21. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
  7. ↑ Rosenberg, Gabe. "Novelist and Visiting Prof. Andre Aciman Shares His Creative Process - Arts". The Wesleyan Argus. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  8. ↑ "Andre Aciman - Google-profile". Google.com. 2013-10-18. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  9. ↑ "Andre Aciman: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  10. 1 2 Meaney, Thomas (Feb–Mar 2007). "Naming Youths". Bookforum. Retrieved 2009-09-21. How strange that Aciman's first novel should run against the Proustian grain.
  11. ↑ Aciman, Andre (2004-06-16). "Sailing to Byzantium by Way of Ithaca". The New York Sun. p. 1. Proust fans filled the Celeste Bartos Forum at the New York Public Library on Wednesday for an evening titled 'The Proust Project: A Discussion With Latter-Day Disciples, Admirers, and Shameless Imitators.' The event celebrated the publication of a book called The Proust Project in which Andre Aciman, a professor at CUNY Graduate Center, asked a group of writers to reflect on In Search of Lost Time.
  12. ↑ "Exodus From Egypt," The Washington Post, Feb. 15, 1995, P. D02
  13. ↑ Walters, Colin. "Visit to 'very small, very strange world'" The Washington Times, March 19, 1995, Page B6
  14. ↑ Ormsby, Eric (2007-01-24). "Nature Loves to Hide". The New York Sun. p. 13. pays its respects to Proust but is brilliantly original....This is a novel of seduction in which the final prize is to win back something small but precious from the coquettishness of memory.
  15. ↑ D'Erasmo, Stacey (2007-01-25). "Suddenly One Summer". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-21. This novel is hot. A coming-of-age story, a coming-out story, a Proustian meditation on time and desire, a love letter, an invocation and something of an epitaph, Call Me by Your Name is also an open question. It is an exceptionally beautiful book.

External links

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