Ron Carlson
Birth placeLogan, Utah, U.S.
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
Alma materUniversity of Utah
GenreFiction

Ron Carlson is an American novelist, short story writer, and professor.

Life and career

Ronald Carlson was born in Logan, Utah, and grew up in Salt Lake City.[citation needed]

He received a master's degree in English from the University of Utah.[citation needed]

Career

Teaching

Carlson taught at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, where he began his first novel.[citation needed]

He became a professor of English at Arizona State University in 1985, teaching creative writing to undergraduates and graduates, and ultimately becoming director of its Creative Writing program.[citation needed] Carlson then moved to the University of California, Irvine.[1] Carlson was the director of UCI's Creative Writing program until his resignation in 2018.[2][3]

In August 2018, Carlson was named as having credible evidence of having committed sexual misconduct with a minor student in the 1970s. The report, prepared by the law firm Locke Lord, named seven teachers in all.[2][3]

Writing

His short stories originally appeared in The New Yorker,[4] Harper's Magazine,[5] Esquire,[6] and GQ. In addition to his fiction, Carlson has also written for The New York Times Book Review and the Los Angeles Times Book Review.[citation needed]

He wrote of his first "good" story: "I did not understand my story; many times you don’t. It’s not your job to understand or evaluate or edit your work when you first emerge from it. Your duty is to be in love with it, and that defies explanation." (Ron Carlson Writes A Story).[7]

The short story "Keith", from The Hotel Eden, was adapted into a film by Todd Kessler (2008). The independent film starred Jesse McCartney and Elisabeth Harnois.[citation needed]

Awards

He has received a number of honors and awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, a National Society of Arts and Letters Award, and the 1993 Ploughshares Cohen Prize.

Bibliography

Poetry

Novels

  • Betrayed by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1977)
  • Truants (1981)
  • Five Skies. Viking. 2007. ISBN 978-0-670-03850-3. ron carlson.
  • The Signal. Penguin Group. 2009. ISBN 978-0-670-02100-0.
  • Return to Oakpine. Viking. 2013. ISBN 978-0-670-02507-7.

YA Novel

  • The Speed of Light, HarperTempest, 2003, ISBN 978-0-380-97837-3

Short stories

  • News of the World (1987)
  • Plan B for the Middle Class (1992; a New York Times Best Book that year)
  • The Hotel Eden. Penguin Books. 1997. ISBN 978-0-14-027389-2. (an NYT Notable Book)
  • At the Jim Bridger. Macmillan. 2002. ISBN 978-0-312-30724-0. (a Los Angeles Times 2002 best book)
  • A Kind of Flying. W. W. Norton & Company. 2003. ISBN 978-0-393-32479-2. ron carlson.

Non-fiction

  • Ron Carlson Writes a Story (2007), subtitled: "From the first glimmer of an idea to the final sentence."

Anthologies

References

  1. ^ "UCI Faculty". uci.edu. 8 March 2010. Archived from the original on 10 June 2010. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  2. ^ "Preventing and Responding to Sexual Misconduct - The Hotchkiss School". www.hotchkiss.org
  3. ^ Pearce, Matt (August 28, 2018). "UC Irvine professor resigns after allegation of sexual misconduct with underage boarding-school student in the 1970s". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  4. ^ "On the U. S. S. Fortitude". The New Yorker. 2 July 1990.
  5. ^ "Search Harper's Magazine". Archived from the original on 2011-06-09. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
  6. ^ "Search". Esquire
  7. ^ "Graywolf Press". Archived from the original on 2012-02-26. Retrieved 2010-01-14.