Fall 2009 Autograph Series – Ethan Canin

photo credit: Fred Gerr

The son of an art teacher and a musician, Ethan Canin spent his childhood in various regions of the United States, from Pennsylvania to California. He attended Stanford University and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop before graduating from Harvard Medical School. A respected physician, Canin retired from medicine in 1994 to write full time. His story collections, Emperor of the Air (Houghton-Mifflin, 1988) and The Palace Thief (Random House, 1993) were national bestsellers, as were his novels Blue River (Houghton-Mifflin, 1991) For King’s and Planets (Random House, 1998) and Carry Me Across the Water (Random House, 2001).

His work is often featured in The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Paris Review. Canin currently resides in Iowa City with his wife and three children where he holds the F. Wendell Miller Professorship of English at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In San Antonio, Canin will discuss his most recent national bestseller, America, America. This sweeping inter-generational American saga delves into class, politics, wealth, and power – themes especially timely for us during these difficult economic times.

To read an excerpt of America America or hear Canin discuss his writing process, click here.