George Michael Cuomo (October 10, 1929 in New York City – October 26, 2015) was an American author of eight novels, as well as short stories, poetry, and a nonfiction book.[1]
George Michael Cuomo | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 10, 1929 New York City, New York |
| Died | October 26, 2015 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Tufts University Indiana University Bloomington |
| Genre | Poetry |
Life
editHe attended Stuyvesant High School and earned a B.A from Tufts University in 1952 and an M.A. from Indiana University in 1955. Cuomo taught at the University of Arizona, the University of California, the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.[2]
His work appeared in Antioch Review,[3] Minnesota Review,[4] The Nation,[5] Saturday Review, Tamarack Review.[6]
Cuomo's first novel, Jack be Nimble, was published in 1963. The novel's eponymous narrator evokes (no doubt intentionally) the anti-hero of All the King's Men, transplanted to the topsy-turvy world of collegiate football. His subsequent novels, which include Among Thieves, Family Honor, and Trial By Water, engage troubling issues of race, class, and social justice. Cuomo's deeply fallible heroes tend to be people that genteel society would prefer to forget: a small-time criminal caught up in a brutal prison riot, a racial minority ensnared in a domestic terrorist plot.
His name has been mentioned more than once in lists of unfairly neglected authors, for example by Richard Yates in Ploughshares. His papers are held at University of Victoria.[7]
Awards
editWorks
edit- Trial By Water, Alfred A. Knopf Incorporated, ISBN 978-0-679-42240-2
- Jack be nimble: a novel, Doubleday, 1963
- Bright day, dark runner: a novel, Doubleday, 1964
- Among Thieves, Doubleday, 1968 ISBN 978-0-340-10910-6
- Sing, choirs of angels, Doubleday, 1969
- The hero's great great great great great grandson: a novel, Atheneum, 1971
- Geronimo and the Girl Next Door, BkMk Press, 1973, ISBN 978-0-933532-16-8
- Family honor: an American life, Doubleday, 1983, ISBN 978-0-385-11077-8
Anthologies
edit- Regina Barreca, ed. (2002). Don't tell mama!: the Penguin book of Italian American writing. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-200247-6.
References
edit- ^ "George Cuomo, novelist who taught at UMass Amherst, dies at 86". Boston Globe. 17 November 2015. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
- ^ "Faculty Honors & Awards - UMass Amherst Provost's Office". Archived from the original on 2010-05-28. Retrieved 2010-01-13.
- ^ Kingsley, John Donald (1962-01-01). The Antioch Review. Antioch Review, Incorporated.
- ^ The Minnesota Review. Minnesota Review. 1962-01-01.
- ^ http://www.thenation.com/archive/detail/13210654 [dead link]
- ^ Tamarack Review. 1967-01-01.
- ^ Cuomo, George. George Cuomo fonds.
- ^ "George Cuomo - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation". Archived from the original on 2011-06-03. Retrieved 2010-01-13.
External links
edit- Fred L. Gardaphé (1996). "Fathers Knows Best". Dagoes read: tradition and the Italian/American writer. Guernica Editions. ISBN 978-1-55071-031-1.
- Blake Bailey (2004). A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-42375-9.
- "The Fiction of George Cuomo", The Arizona quarterly, Volume 30, 1974