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VJ Books Presents Author Richard Ford!

Richard Ford Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day and The Lay of the Land, and the short story collection Rock Springs.

Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He received a B.A. from Michigan State University. Having enrolled to study hotel management, he switched to English. After graduating he taught junior high school in Flint, Michigan, and enlisted in the US Marines. At university he met Kristina Hensley, his future wife; the two married in 1968.

Ford briefly attended law school but dropped out and entered the creative writing program at the University of California, Irvine, to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree, which he received in 1970. In 1971 he was selected for a three-year appointment in the University of Michigan Society of Fellows.

Ford published his first novel, A Piece of My Heart, in 1976. In 1982, he wrote The Sportswriter, a novel about a failed novelist turned sportswriter who undergoes an emotional crisis following the death of his son. The novel became Ford's "breakout book", named one of Time magazine's five best books of 1986 and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

In 1995, Ford's career reached a high point with the release of Independence Day, a sequel to The Sportswriter. The novel became the first to win both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In the same year, Ford was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story, for outstanding achievement in that genre.

Ford lived for many years in the French Quarter and then in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, where his wife Kristina was the executive director of the city planning commission. He now lives in East Boothbay, Maine.

Richard Ford Book List and Awards
His website: richardfordbooks.com
Similar authors: Junot Diaz, Chang-rae Lee, Philip Roth, Danielle Trussoni
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The Lay of the Land
Signed First Edition

The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford

Women with Men
Signed First Edition

Women with Men by Richard Ford

Wildlife
Signed First Edition

Wildlife by Richard Ford

Richard Ford Bibliography


Novels

  • A Piece of My Heart (1976)
  • The Ultimate Good Luck (1981)
  • The Sportswriter (1986)
  • Wildlife (1990)
  • Independence Day (1995)
  • The Lay of the Land (2006)
  • Canada (2012)
  • Let Me Be Frank With You (2014)

Story Collections

  • Rock Springs (1987)
  • Women with Men: Three Stories (1997)
  • A Multitude of Sins (2002)
  • Vintage Ford (2004)

Screenplays

  • Bright Angel (1990)

As Contributor or Editor

  • The Granta Book of the American Short Story (1992)
  • The Granta Book of the American Long Story (1999)
  • The Essential Tales of Chekhov (1999)
  • The New Granta Book of the American Short Story (2007)
  • Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar: Stories of Work (2011)

Richard Ford Awards

  • 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award for Independence Day
  • 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Independence Day
  • 1995 Rea Award for the Short Story for outstanding achievement in that genre
  • 2001 PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in short fiction
  • 2013 Prix Femina Etranger for Canada
  • 2013 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction for Canada

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