Peter Cameron (novelist)

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Peter Cameron
Born (1959-11-29) November 29, 1959 (age 64)
Pompton Plains, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • Short story writer
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHamilton College

Peter Cameron (born November 29, 1959) is an American novelist and short-story writer.[1] Several of his works have been adapted into films.[2][3][4]

Life and career[edit]

Cameron was born and raised in the Pompton Plains section of Pequannock Township, New Jersey.[5] He graduated in English literature in 1982 from Hamilton College. Cameron lived in Pompton Plains, London, and, later, New York City.[6]

In 1983, he published his first short story (Memorial Day) in The New Yorker; he then continued to contribute to the magazine in the following years.[7] His first book was a collection of short stories entitled One Way or Another, published by Harper & Row in 1986. His debut novel Leap Year was published by Harper & Row in 1990. His second novel, The Weekend,[8] was edited in 1994 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and adapted as the Brian Skeet film of the same name released in November 2000.[2] In 1997, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published Cameron's next novel, Andorra,[9] and The City of Your Final Destination in 2002[10] (which in 2009 was adapted into a film of the same name directed by James Ivory).[3] In October 2007, Cameron's young adult novel Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You was published,[11][1] and in October 2012 it was adapted into a film of the same name.[4] In March 2012, he published Coral Glynn.[12] His last novel, What Happens at Night, was published by Catapult in August 2020.[13]

In addition to his work as a writer, he has taught at Columbia, Yale and Sarah Lawrence College. Between 1990 and 1998, he worked for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.[14] In 2010, he founded Wallflower Press, whose name had to change in January 2014 to Shrinking Violet Press due to a rights conflict with Columbia University.[15][16]

Influences[edit]

Cameron was influenced by authors such as Rose Macaulay, Barbara Pym and Margaret Drabble,[17] borrowing their aptitude for probing individual lives.

List of works[edit]

Novels[edit]

Collections[edit]

  • One Way or Another (1986)
  • Far-flung (1991)
  • The Half You Don't Know (1997)

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "If You Really Want to Hear About It". The New York Times. November 11, 2007. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Gustavson, Eric (November 22, 2000). "FILM REVIEW; A Heartbreaker's Posthumous Power". The New York Times. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Movie Review: 'The City of Your Final Destination'". Los Angeles Times. April 23, 2010. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  4. ^ a b "When Life Seems Like One Long Rainstorm". The New York Times. October 4, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  5. ^ Kiely, Eugene. "Peter Cameron: telling strange tales of suburbia", The Record, August 8, 1986. Accessed November 2, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "A quiet, reserved young man with an infectious smile, Cameron was born and raised in Pompton Plains".
  6. ^ "PETER CAMERON". Istituto Italiano di Cultura, New York. March 7, 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  7. ^ "Peter Cameron Latest Articles". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  8. ^ Dorris, Michael (July 28, 1994). "A Gripping Tale Suffused With Repressed Emotion, Loneliness". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  9. ^ Livesey, Margot (December 29, 1992). "The Past Is Another Country". The New York Times. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  10. ^ "CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  11. ^ "SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU". Kirkus Reviews. October 9, 2007. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  12. ^ "'Coral Glynn': An Ambiguous Affair To Remember". NPR. March 6, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  13. ^ Self, John (September 4, 2021). "What Happens at Night by Peter Cameron review — checking in at the hotel at the edge of the world". The Times. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
  14. ^ "Novelist Peter Cameron '82, H'12 to Read From His Work". Hamilton. November 5, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  15. ^ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (December 3, 2021). "This Season's Pop-Culture Memoirs, From Will Smith to Elvira". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  16. ^ "About Shrinking Violet Press". Shrinking Violet Press (archived). Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  17. ^ (in Spanish) Gómez Urzaiz, Begoña (March 11, 2019). "Peter Cameron: el escritor que cuenta historias de la gente acomodada". El País. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
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