Don Wallace

Fiction Writer

Portland, OR
Oregon US
Email: 
don@don-wallace.com
Website: 
www.don-wallace.com

Author's Bio

Born and raised in Long Beach, CA, I wrote my way through UC Santa Cruz and after a year working as an EMT dispatcher, the Iowa Writers' Workshop--where I met my future wife, Mindy Pennybacker (Do One Green Thing). I have taught at the New School and Pace, work with authors one on one for publishers, spent two decades editing and creating publications including stints at Time Inc, Hearst, Conde Nast and The New York Times. My memoir, The French House, comes out June 2014. My nf book One Great Game contrasted two American high schools and their respective homtetowns: one inner-city, one wealthy suburb. Among other work, Harper's has run 3 linked memoirs on race, community, and family.

Publications & Prizes

Book:
Hot Water (Soho Press, 1991)
Prizes won: 

*Best American Essays (ed. Cynthia Ozick), Roll of Honor: "While Watts Burned";
*James Michener Prize for fiction from the Copernicus Society;
*Author of the Year, from the U.S. Naval Institute, for a serialized YA novel: "The Log of Matthew Roving";
*Pluma de Plata Mexicana, Silver Quill Award from the Mexican Secretary of Tourism, for best reporting on Mexico in 1985;
*Short story contest winner, Next Stop Hollywood (St. Martins' Press);
*Elizabeth Mignon Puknat Prize for Poetry, UC Santa Cruz (second place.

Personal Favorites

What I'm reading now: 
Stagnant Water and Other Poems by Wen Yiduo, 68 by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, In the Midst of Life by Ambrose Bierce, Enders Game by Orson Scott Card, Beyond Green Tea and Grapefruit: poems by Gail Harada

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Long Beach
Raised in: 
Long Beach, CA
California
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Mar 19, 2014