Justin Cronin is the author of the widely praised novel-in-stories Mary and O’Neil, which won the 2002 PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize, both for best debut fiction of the year.
In the third episode of the podcast series Colgate Conversations: Writers and their Craft, Cronin talks about the success of his book and shares information about his most recent literary activities.
That new work includes the contribution of “Down the Deep Well of Gravity: A Talk on the Cosmology of Fiction” for the Colgate University Press’s forthcoming publication of Crafting Fiction, Poetry and Memoir: Talks of the Colgate Writers’ Conference (spring 2008).
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Cronin’s most recent novel, The Summer Guest, fulfills the promise of his earlier fiction. One noted critic remarks that “with a rare combination of emotional insight, narrative power, and lyrical grace, Cronin transforms the simple story of a dying man’s last wish into a rich tapestry of family love.”
Other writings appear or are forthcoming in The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Food and Wine, Five Points, and Gulf Coast. Born and raised in New England, he is a professor of English at Rice University.
Other major honors he has received for his fiction include a prestigious Whiting Writer’s Award, an NEA fellowship, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and the National Novella Award.