Andre Dubus

Born:	August 11, 1936(1936-08-11) Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA
Died:	February 24, 1999 (aged 62) Harverhill, Massachusetts, USA
Occupation:	novelist, short story writer, teacher
Nationality:	American
Writing period:	1967 - 1998
Genres:	Literary fiction
Debut works:	The Lieutenant (1967)
Influenced:	Andre Dubus III

Andre Dubus (August 11, 1936 - February 24, 1999) was an American short story writer, essayist, and autobiographer. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... This article is about the City of Lake Charles, La. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: Country United States State Massachusetts County Essex County Settled 1640 Incorporated 1641 Government  - Type Mayor-council city  - Mayor James J. Fiorentini Area  - City  35. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... For the album by the Kaiser Chiefs see Employment (album) Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... This article is in need of attention. ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or content. ... Literary fiction is a somewhat uneasy term that has come into common usage since around 1970, principally to distinguish serious fiction from the many types of genre fiction and popular fiction. ... Andre Dubus III (b. ... is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... This article is in need of attention. ... An essayist is an author who writes compositions which can be about any particular subject. ...

Biography

Andre Dubus was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the youngest child of a Cajun-Irish Catholic family. His surname is pronounced "Duh-BYOOSE" with the accent on the second syllable to rhyme with "muse." Dubus grew up in the Bayou country in Lafayette, Louisiana and was educated by the Christian Brothers, a Catholic parochial school that emphasized literature and writing. Dubus graduated from nearby McNeese State College in 1958 as a journalism and English major. Dubus then spent six years in the Marine Corps, rising to the rank of captain, at which time he married for the first time and began his family. After leaving the Marine Corps, Dubus moved with his wife and four children to Iowa City, where he later graduated from the University of Iowa's Iowa Writers' Workshop with an MFA in creative writing. This article is about the City of Lake Charles, La. ... : Hub City : The Heart of Cajun Country United States Louisiana Lafayette 47. ... La Salle Academy, New York City The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools [[1]], also known as the Christian Brothers, the Lasallian Brothers, the French Christian Brothers, or the De La Salle Brothers, is a Roman Catholic religious teaching order, founded by French Priest Saint Jean-Baptiste de... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... McNeese State University, founded in 1939, is a university located in Lake Charles, Louisiana. ... Journalism is a discipline of gathering, writing and reporting news, and more broadly it includes the process of editing and presenting the news articles. ... The UKs Royal Marines in a Rigid Raider assault watercraft A marine corps (from French corps de marine) is a branch of a nations armed forces incorporating Marines, intended to be capable of mounting amphibious assaults using infantry, armour, aircraft, and watercraft. ... Captain is a rank or title with various meanings. ... Iowa City is a city located in Johnson County, Iowa, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 62,220. ... The University of Iowa, also commonly called Iowa or U of I, is a major national research university located on a campus in Iowa City, Iowa, USA, on the banks of the Iowa River in East Central Iowa. ... The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa is a prestigious college and graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. ... In the United States, a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is a terminal graduate degree in an area of visual, plastic, literary or performing arts typically requiring two to three years of study beyond the bachelor level. ... Creative writing is a term used to distinguish certain imaginative or different types of writing from technical writing. ...

After receiving his MFA, Dubus taught briefly in the South, but soon became disgusted by its social conditions and rampant racism. Dubus moved to the northeast and from 1966 to 1984 taught at Bradford College in Massachusetts. His teaching loads were high and his salary low, but as Dubus needed to support his family as well as continue his career as a writer, and so remained there for almost twenty years. In 1984, Dubus experienced chest pains and shortness of breath. Originally diagnosed as a mild heart attack, these symptoms were later recognised as reactions to stress and exhaustion. Dubus resigned from Bradford, and later taught at the University of Alabama and at Boston University. Racism is the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior or inferior to members of other races. ... Bradford College is a now defunct college in Massachusetts, closed in 2000. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... The University of Alabama (also known as Alabama, UA or colloquially as Bama) is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. Founded in 1831, UA is the flagship campus of the University of Alabama System. ... For similarly-named academic institutions, see Boston (disambiguation). ...

Andre Dubus's life was scarred by tragedy. His sister was raped as a young woman, causing Dubus many years of paranoia over his loved ones' safety. Dubus carried personal firearms to protect himself and those around him, until the night in the late 1980s, when he almost shot a man in a drunken argument outside a bar in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In his essay "Giving up the Gun", published in The New Yorker, Dubus describes that night as the point at which he decided to stop arming himself and to take a less defensive - and perhaps less hostile - view of life. Tuscaloosa is a city in west central Alabama in the southern United States. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. ...

Dubus experienced a personal tragedy late on the night of July 23, 1986, when he was seriously injured in a car accident. He was driving from Boston to his home in Haverhill, Massachusetts and he stopped to assist two disabled motorists--brother and sister Luis and Luz Santiago. As Dubus assisted the injured Luz to the side of the highway, an oncoming car swerved and hit them. Luis was killed instantly; Luz survived because Dubus had pushed her out of the way. Dubus himself was critically injured. As a result of the accident, both Dubus's legs were crushed. His left leg had to be amputated above the knee, and Dubus would eventually lose the use of his right leg. Dubus would spend three painful years undergoing a series of operations, and extensive physical therapy. Despite his efforts to walk with a prosthesis, chronic infections confined him to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. Dubus continued to battle the physical pains imposed by his condition, and with clinical depression. Over the course of his struggles Dubus's third wife left him, taking their two young daughters. is the 204th day of the year (205th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: Country United States State Massachusetts County Essex County Settled 1640 Incorporated 1641 Government  - Type Mayor-council city  - Mayor James J. Fiorentini Area  - City  35. ... Physical therapy (or physiotherapy[1]) is the provision of services to people and populations to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and functional ability throughout the lifespan. ... A United States Army soldier plays table football with two prosthetic arms Jon Comer, professional skateboarder with a prosthetic leg. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Clinical depression (also called major depressive disorder, or unipolar depression when compared to bipolar disorder) is a state of intense sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individuals social functioning and/or activities of daily living. ...

To help Dubus with his mounting medical bills, his friends and fellow writers, Kurt Vonnegut and John Updike held a special literary benefit. Dubus was extremely grateful, and his appreciation extended to holding workshops and reading sessions for aspiring writers. Despite these physical, psychological, and emotional difficulties, Dubus continued to write, producing two books of essays and a collection of short stories. He also conducted a weekly writers' workshop in his home, meeting with a group of young writers, many of whom were teenage girls in a residential program for abused adolescents. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ... John Hoyer Updike (born March 18, 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania) is an American writer. ...

Dubus also found a deeper religious faith at this time. A practicing Catholic all his life, Dubus found that the loss of his mobility drew him closer to God, and renewed his Catholic faith at a deeper, personal level. Those who knew him admired the peace and acceptance he had achieved, as well as his ability to live his life without bitterness or self-pity.

Dubus spent his later years in Haverhill, until his death from a heart attack in 1999, at age 62. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Bradford, Massachusetts, which is part of Haverhill. He married three times, and fathered six children. His son Andre Dubus III is also an author, whose most noteworthy book is the novel House of Sand and Fog (1999), a finalist for the National Book Award. The novel was later filmed. Bradford was a town in Massachusetts on the banks of the Merrimack River. ... Andre Dubus III (b. ... House of Sand and Fog is a 1999 novel by Andre Dubus III. It was selected for Oprahs Book Club in 2000 as well as a finalist for the National Book Award. ... The National Book Awards is one of the most preeminent literary prizes in the United States. ...

Writing career

Although he did write one novel, The Lieutenant, in 1967, Dubus considered himself to be and is mainly known as a writer of short fiction. Throughout his career, he published most of his work in small but distinguished literary journals such as Ploughshares and Sewanee Review. He was also loyal to a small publishing firm run by David R. Godine that published his first works. When larger book publishers approached him with more financially-rewarding deals, Dubus stayed with Godine. It was only in the last few years of his life, when his medical bills became substantial, that Dubus switched publishers, moving to Alfred A. Knopf. Ploughshares is an American literary journal published quarterly by Emerson College. ... The Sewanee Review (founded 1892) is the oldest continuously published literary magazine in the United States. ... It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: No evidence of notability If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ... Colophon of the publisher Alfred A. Knopf. ...

Dubus's literary career was extensive. His collections include: Separate Flights (1975), Adultery and Other Choices (1977), Finding a Girl in America (1980), The Times Are Never So Bad (1983), Voices from the Moon (1984), The Last Worthless Evening (1986), Selected Stories (1988), Broken Vessels (1991), Dancing After Hours (1996), and Meditations from a Movable Chair (1998). His writing awards include the PEN/Malamud, the Rea Award for the Short Story for excellence in short fiction, the Jean Stein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations. Several writing awards are named after Dubus. His papers are archived at McNeese State University and Xavier University in Louisiana. The Rea Award for the Short Story is an annual award given to an American author chosen for unusually significant contributions to American short story fiction. ... American Academy of Arts and Letters is an organization whose goal is to foster, assist, and sustain an interest in American literature, music, and art. ... McNeese State University, founded in 1939, is a university located in Lake Charles, Louisiana. ... Xavier University of Louisiana is a historically African-American Roman Catholic University located off Carrollton Avenue in Mid-City New Orleans, Louisiana. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ...

Cinematic adaptations

After Andre Dubus' death, his story "Killings" was adapted into the movie In the Bedroom (2001) starring Sissy Spacek. It was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Published. The 2004 movie, We Don't Live Here Anymore is based upon two of Dubus' novellas, "We Don't Live Here Anymore" and "Adultery." In the Bedroom is a 2001 movie directed by Todd Field and starring Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei, and William Mapother. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... Mary Elizabeth Sissy Spacek (born December 25, 1949) is an Academy Award-winning American actress and singer. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... We Dont Live Here Anymore film poster We Dont Live Here Anymore is a 2004 film directed by John Curran. ...

Bibliography

• The Lieutenant (1967)
• Separate Flights (1975)
• Adultery and Other Choices (1977)
• Finding a Girl in America (1980)
• The Times Are Never So Bad (1983)
• Voices from the Moon (1984)
• The Last Worthless Evening (1986)
• Selected Stories (1988)
• Broken Vessels (1991)
• Dancing After Hours (1996)
• Meditations from a Moveable Chair (1998)