Tom Perrotta
Tom Perrotta | |
---|---|
Born | Newark, New Jersey, U.S. | August 13, 1961
Occupation |
|
Education | Yale University (BA) Syracuse University (MA) |
Period | 1988–present |
Spouse |
Mary Granfield (m. 1991) |
Children | 2 |
Website | |
tomperrotta |
Thomas R. Perrotta (born August 13, 1961) is an American novelist and screenwriter best known for his novels
Biography
Tom Perrotta was born in
Perrotta married writer Mary Granfield in 1991, and they have two children.[8] As of 2019[update], the couple lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston.[9]
Career
While teaching creative writing at Yale,
Following Election, Perrotta shifted his focus to an older—though just as troubled—cast of characters: first with 2000's Joe College, a comic journey into the dark side of higher education, love, and food service (which the author says is about his college years[12]); and then with 2004's Little Children, which explored the psychological and romantic depths beneath the surface of suburbia.
Little Children was Perrotta's "breakout book",
In 2006, Perrotta sold New Line Cinema an original screenplay he co-wrote with Frasier producer Rob Greenberg. Titled Barry and Stan Gone Wild, the screenplay is "a shameless comedy [about] a 40-something dermatologist who goes on spring break".[4] In January 2007, Perrotta was on the guest faculty for the third annual Writers in Paradise conference at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.[7] Perrotta was invited to teach at Eckerd by Dennis Lehane; the two writers had previously taught together at Stonecoast Writers Conference in Maine.[7]
Perrotta's novel, The Abstinence Teacher, was published on October 16, 2007. It is, according to the author, "all about sex education and the culture wars. It's close in spirit to Little Children, I think."[7] It was chosen by The New York Times as a 2007 Notable Book of the Year. As of October 2007, he was working on a film adaptation of the book with Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who directed Little Miss Sunshine.[6]
In 2010, 30,000 copies of his short story "The Smile on Happy Chang's Face" were distributed as part of the Boston Book Festival's "One City, One Story" project.
He and
Bibliography
Novels
- The Wishbones (1997)
- Election(1998)
- Joe College (2000)
- Little Children (2004)
- The Abstinence Teacher (2007)
- The Leftovers (2011)[15][16][17]
- Mrs. Fletcher (2017)[18]
- Tracy Flick Can't Win (2022)
Short stories
- "The Weiner Man" (1988)
- "Wild Kingdom" (1988)
- "Forgiveness" (1989–1994)
- "The Smile on Happy Chang's Face" (2004)
- "Kiddie Pool" (2006)
- "Me and Carlos" (2020)
Short story collections
- Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies (1994)
- Nine Inches (2013)
Essays
- "The Squeamish American" (2007)
References
- ^ a b Crace, John (February 21, 2009). "A life in writing: Tom Perrotta". The Guardian. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
He was born in 1961 in Garwood, where he spent his entire childhood. His father was an Italian postal worker, his mother an Albanian-Italian - "that made her a second-class Italian" - secretary.
- ^ a b c d e Rich, Motoko. "A Writer's Search for the Sex in Abstinence", The New York Times, October 14, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.
- ^ Fiamma, Florinda (March 1, 2012). "Tom Perrotta At the end of real life in the new novel of a cult author". L'Uomo Vogue. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
My paternal grandparents were Italian immigrants from a village near Avellino. I grew up hearing them and my dad talk Italian. My mother's relatives were Albanians, but they, too, lived in Italy before emigrating to the States.
- ^ a b c d Shanahan, Mark. "Adaptation: Tom Perrotta is growing accustomed to seeing his books on the big screen", The Boston Globe, October 18, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ^ "Tom Perrotta and Lenore Jeans are new inductees into David Brearley Hall of Fame", Suburban News, January 22, 2010. Accessed March 11, 2024. "Tom Perrotta is a 1979 graduate of David Brearley"
- ^ a b Schwartz, Missy (October 15, 2007). "The Q&A: Tom Perrotta: His Novel Take on Suburban Life". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved May 15, 2021.
- ^ St. Petersburg Times, January 14, 2007. Archived September 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "About Tom Perrotta" Archived June 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Official Web Site. Retrieved on July 4, 2007.
- ^ Feldberg, Isaac (October 24, 2019). "Tom Perrotta talks sex, suburbia, and 'Mrs. Fletcher'". The Boston Globe. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
- ^ "Tom Perrotta on How to Keep a Story’s Momentum Going", Literary Hub, June 10, 2022. Retrieved on 2022-11-13.
- ^ "Meet the Writers: Tom Perrotta" Archived June 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Barnesandnoble.com, 2004.
- ^ a b Alexander, Kevin. "Suburban Observer" (interview with Perrotta), Writer's Digest, Dec. 2007.
- ^ Blythe, Will. "All the Children Are Above Average", The New York Times, March 14, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ^ "Books & Writing: Election" Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Official Web Site. Retrieved on October 20, 2007.
- ^ Jensen, Liz. (August 30, 2011) THE LEFTOVERS by Tom Perrotta | Kirkus. Kirkusreviews.com. Retrieved on 2014-06-05.
- ^ Damon Lindelof & Tom Perrotta's ‘Leftovers’ Gets Pilot Order At HBO Archived April 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Deadline.com. Retrieved on June 5, 2014.
- ^ King, Stephen (August 25, 2011). "The Leftovers - By Tom Perrotta - Book Review". The New York Times.
- ISBN 9781501144035.