Ethan Andrew Canin (born July 19, 1960) is an American author, educator, and physician. He is a member of the faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Ethan Canin
Canin in Iowa City, Iowa
Born (1960-07-19) July 19, 1960 (age 64)
Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation
  • Author
  • educator
  • physician
EducationStanford University (BA)
University of Iowa (MFA)
Harvard University (MD)
GenreNovel, Short story
Notable awardsGuggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts fellowship
Children3
ParentsStuart Canin (father)

Canin was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while his parents were vacationing from Iowa City, where his father, Stuart Canin, taught violin at the University of Iowa. He and his family moved around the midwestern and northeastern United States, and eventually settled in San Francisco, California, where he attended Town School and later graduated from San Francisco University High School. He attended Stanford University and earned an undergraduate degree in English. Returning to the University of Iowa, Canin entered the Iowa Writers' Workshop, receiving an MFA in 1984, and went on to attend Harvard Medical School, where he earned an M.D. in 1991.[1]

Beginning his medical practice with a residency at the University of California San Francisco, he pursued both medicine and writing for several years, leaving medicine in 1995[2] to join the faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he still teaches. He is a co-founder of the San Francisco Writers Grotto.[1][2]

Canin is married with three daughters.[2][3]

Awards

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  • The Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship (1986)
  • Henfield/Transatlantic Review Prize (1987)
  • The California Book Award/Gold Medal in Literature (1994)
  • The Lyndhurst Prize (1994–1996)
  • National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1987 & 1996)
  • Guggenheim Fellowship (2010)

Writing

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Short story collections

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  • Emperor of the Air (1985)
  • The Palace Thief (1994)

Novels

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  • Blue River (1992) Time Warner International ISBN 978-0-446-39447-5
  • For Kings and Planets (1999) Saint Martin's press Inc. ISBN 978-0-312-24125-4
  • Carry Me Across the Water (2001) Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. ISBN 978-0-7475-5790-6
  • America America (2009) Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. ISBN 978-0-7475-9872-5
  • A Doubter's Almanac: A Novel (2016) Random House ISBN 978-1-4000-6826-5

Filmography

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Several of Canin's novels and short stories have been adapted for film.[a]

Short films

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Feature films

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References

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  1. ^ a b "About the Author: Ethan Canin". Newmarket Press. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Canin, Ethan (13 June 2001). "Good Lit: Ethan Canin in Conversation" (Interview). Interviewed by Barbara Lane. The Commonwealth Club. Archived from the original on 12 July 2010. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  3. ^ Kaminsky, Leah (17 August 2009). "Anatomy of a leading author". The Australian Jewish News. Internet Archive. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2022. "I feel profoundly Jewish by culture — perhaps even more than I feel like an American -— but I lived in small towns for most of my childhood and thus grew up without much exposure to a strong Jewish community."
  4. ^ Byock, Lila (14 January 2009). ""24"'s Novel Politics". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 25 November 2022. Retrieved 25 November 2022. Ethan Canin, the author of the best-selling novel "America, America," has discovered that he was the inspiration for the name of the Chief of Staff character on the latest season of "24."

Notes

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  1. ^ The series 24, while not written by or featuring Canin, has a character named Ethan Kanin who was named after the writer.[4]
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