Biography
Andrew Sean Greer is the bestselling author of The Story of a Marriage, which The New York Times has called an “inspired, lyrical novel,” and The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named a best book of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune while garnering many other coast-to-coast honors. His first novel, The Path of Minor Planets, and his story collection, How It Was for Me, were also published to wide acclaim. His stories have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and other national publications, and have been anthologized most recently in The Book of Other People and Best American Nonrequired Reading. He is the recipient of the PEN/O’Henry Prize for Short Fiction, the Northern California Book Award, the California Book Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Public Library. Greer currently lives in San Francisco and New York, at work on his next novel.
Andrew Sean Greer was born in Washington, DC, the son of two scientists. He studied writing at Brown University, where he was the Commencement Speaker at his own graduation. After years in New York working as a chauffeur, television extra and unsuccessful writer, he moved to Missoula, MT, where he received his MFA from the University of Montana. He soon moved to San Francisco and began to publish in magazines before releasing a collection of his stories, How It Was for Me. His first novel, The Path of Minor Planets, was published to much acclaim in 2001, and his second book, The Confessions of Max Tivoli, came out in 2004. John Updike first put this novel on the literary map when, in the pages of The New Yorker, he called it “enchanting, in the perfumed, dandified style of disenchantment brought to grandeur by Proust and Nabokov.” Mitch Albom then chose Max for the Today Show Book Club and it soon became a bestseller. The New York Times has written that in his new novel, The Story of a Marriage, Greer ascends “to the heights of masters like Marilynne Robinson and William Trevor.”
Awards Honors etc.
for The Story of a Marriage
Amazon Best Books of 2008
Washington Post Best Books of 2008
San Francisco Chronicle Best Books of 2008
UK Guardian Top Reads 2008
Financial Times Best Books of 2008
TODAY show pick
NPR Summer Reads
AudioFile Earphones Award
San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller
Los Angeles Times Bestseller
for The Confessions of Max Tivoli:
New York Public Library Cullman Center Fellowship
NEA Fellowship
New York Public Library Young Lions Award
California Book Award Gold Medal- Fiction
Northern California Book Award - Fiction
Los Angeles Times Bestseller
San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller
Contra Costa Times Bestseller
Barnes & Noble Discover Selection
Borders Recommends Selection
NYT Book Review Summer 2004
“Vacation Reading/Notable Books” Selection
Amazon Top 10 Books of 2004
San Francisco Chronicle Best Books of 2004
Chicago Tribune Best Books of 2004
Newsday Favorite Books of 2004
Miami Herald Noteworthy Books of 2004
Christian Science Monitor Noteworthy Books of 2004
Bookmarks Magazine Favorite Books of 2004
Newcity Chicago Top 5 Book of 2004
Journal News Best Books of 2004
Entertainment Weekly Must List 2004