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Who2 Biography:

Russell Banks

, Writer

  • Born: 28 March 1940
  • Birthplace: Newton, Massachusetts
  • Best Known As: Author of The Sweet Hereafter

Russell Banks is a New England writer famous for his novels Affliction (1990) and The Sweet Hereafter (1992), both of which were made into critically-acclaimed movies. In the 1980s Banks began publishing short stories, most of which have been included in his collections Trailerpark (1981), Success Stories (1986) and The Angel on the Roof (2000). Banks's stories are often drawn from his own experiences growing up poor in New England, or from time he spent in Jamaica, and explore moral themes and personal relationships. His other novels include The Book of Jamaica (1980), Continental Drift (1985), Rule of the Bone (1996), a historical novel about abolitionist John Brown, Cloudsplitter (1998), and 2004's The Darling, a contemporary novel that takes place during Charles Taylor's rise to power in Liberia.

Banks and his daughter, Caerthan Banks, appear in the film The Sweet Hereafter (1997).

 
 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Russell Banks

(born March 28, 1940, Newton, Mass., U.S.) U.S. novelist. Banks was associated in the 1960s with Lillabulero Press and has taught at various colleges and universities. He attracted wide attention with Continental Drift (1985), inspired by a stint in Jamaica; his later novels, which, like his earlier works, often portray characters trapped by economic and social forces they do not understand, include Affliction (1989; film, 1998), The Sweet Hereafter (1991; film, 1997), and Cloudsplitter (1998), a historical novel about the abolitionist John Brown.

For more information on Russell Banks, visit Britannica.com.

 
Works: Works by Russell Banks

1985Continental Drift. Banks's acclaimed novel juxtaposes a Haitian woman's attempt to escape oppression with an American man's relocation of his family from New Hampshire to Florida. It would be followed by the story collection Success Stories (1986), which continues the theme of the relationship between the First World and the Third World.
1989Affliction. Banks's autobiographically based novel treats two adult sons as they deal with their alcoholic, abusive father. The author explains that he wrote the book "to understand my own life, and also my father's and grandfather's. I wanted to know what brought them to be the human beings they were, and why they inflicted so much suffering."
1991The Sweet Hereafter. Banks's novel is a harrowing account of a fatal school-bus accident, which destroys an upstate New York community. Donna Rifkind notes, "This catastrophe was villainless: it was a cruel whimsical event, beyond control. This fact, and Banks's subtle handling of it, are what lift the novel up out of ordinary gritty realism toward something approaching the sublime."
1998Cloudsplitter. Banks's impressive novel about John Brown is narrated by Owen Brown, the only son of the abolitionist crusader who survived him. Critics note Banks's fresh way of retelling history by having Brown respond to the questions of a historical researcher.

 
Wikipedia: Russell Banks

Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940 in Newton, Massachusetts) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. He is president of the International Parliament of Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous international prizes and awards. His main works include the novels Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone, Cloudsplitter, The Sweet Hereafter, and Affliction. The latter two novels were each made into feature films in 1997; see Affliction (film).

Many of his works reflect his working-class upbringing in New England. His stories often show people facing tragedy and downturns in everyday life, expressing sadness and self-doubt, but also showing resilience and strength in the face of their difficulties.

Banks has also written short stories, some of which appear in the collection The Angel on the Roof, as well as poetry. He has written a movie adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road for producer Francis Ford Coppola, which was slated for production in 2006. [1] It is not known if Banks's screenplay will be used in the final version.

Banks was the 1985 recipient of the John Dos Passos Prize for fiction.

He lives in upstate New York, and has been named a New York State Author. He is presently also Artist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland.


Works

  • 1974 Snow (poetry)
  • 1975 Searching for Survivors (short story collection)
  • 1975 Family Life (novel)
  • 1978 The New World (short story collection)
  • 1978 Hamilton Stark (novel)
  • 1980 The Book of Jamaica (novel)
  • 1981 Trailerpark (short story collection)
  • 1983 The Relation of My Imprisonment (novel)
  • 1985 Continental Drift (novel)
  • 1986 Success Stories (short story collection)
  • 1989 Affliction (novel)
  • 1991 The Sweet Hereafter (novel)
  • 1995 Rule of the Bone (novel)
  • 1998 Cloudsplitter (novel)
  • 1998 Invisible Stranger (nonfiction)
  • 2000 The Angel on the Roof (short story collection)
  • 2004 The Darling (novel)

References



This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

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Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Russell Banks biography from Who2.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Works. The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Russell Banks".  Read more

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