Author David Vann
Other Works
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Crocodile: Murder in a Mexican Drug-Running Port
A Mile Downto , has won a 2008 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and
Legend of a Suicide, winner of the 2007 Grace Paley Prize!
Awarded by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, available in
bookstores October 2008. Five of the short stories in this collection have been
published in magazines. (Click on the titles to read the stories or click here to
read the synopsis.)
"Ichthyology" first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and was reprinted in The
Anchorage Daily News.
"Rhoda" won first prize in the River City Writing Awards in Fiction (judged by
Susan Minot) and appeared in River City.
"A Legend of Good Men" won first prize in the Fish Stories: Collective I Best
Fiction Contest and appeared in their premiere issue.
"Ketchikan" appeared in the 2006 issue of StoryQuarterly featuring current and
former Wallace Stegner Fellows.
"The Higher Blue" appeared in Fourteen Hills.
“Ichthyology,” “Rhoda,” and “A Legend of Good Men” collectively received a
Henfield/Transatlantic Review Award. An earlier version of this collection received
second place in the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society Prize for the novel.
Cut Adrift
This novel is finished and will be offered to publishers soon, along with Crocodile.
Advance Praise for Cut Adrift:
Cut Adrift is so fast, so fun, you might not notice it’s also elegantly, masterfully
written. Like the characters, we’re being seduced. And in the end, our hearts will
be broken. This novel is better, even, than Vann’s bestselling memoir, A Mile
Down, because here the narrative is created not by fate but by the desires of four
people driven blindly by sex, power, love, the longing to rise to a higher class, and
shame.
—Lalita Tademy, bestselling author of Cane River and Red River
It’s rare that a modern novel gives the true feeling of tragedy—the horrible and yet
perversely delightful feeling of watching individuals’ lives seamlessly combine to
wreak terrible sadness. David Vann plots like a dream, and he writes without
letting any of the levers of his plotting show—as if the tragedy had been pre-
written, and needed simply to be told. His mastery is effected in simple language,
and his characters—hero, villain, and all the others—are real and compelling.
Like Ian McEwan, Vann opens a door for us that leads to a dark hallway, and we
want to follow him even though we know that something terrible lies in wait there,
for a character we’ve come to love. This book is a precisely calibrated bear trap
you’ll want to step into—a nettle you’ll want to close your hand upon, to feel its
sweet sting.
—Julie Hilden, author of 3 and The Bad Daughter
Vann is the real thing. Cut Adrift explores not only our cruelty but also our frailty.
This novel has everything we darkly crave—sex, love, murder, revenge, and who
we once were—and also everything we run from, including who we are now. You’ll
read Cut Adrift in a single night.
—Keith Scribner, author of The Goodlife and Miracle Girl
A Mile Downto , has won a 2008 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and
Legend of a Suicide, winner of the 2007 Grace Paley Prize!
Awarded by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, available in
bookstores October 2008. Five of the short stories in this collection have been
published in magazines. (Click on the titles to read the stories or click here to
read the synopsis.)
"Ichthyology" first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and was reprinted in The
Anchorage Daily News.
"Rhoda" won first prize in the River City Writing Awards in Fiction (judged by
Susan Minot) and appeared in River City.
"A Legend of Good Men" won first prize in the Fish Stories: Collective I Best
Fiction Contest and appeared in their premiere issue.
"Ketchikan" appeared in the 2006 issue of StoryQuarterly featuring current and
former Wallace Stegner Fellows.
"The Higher Blue" appeared in Fourteen Hills.
“Ichthyology,” “Rhoda,” and “A Legend of Good Men” collectively received a
Henfield/Transatlantic Review Award. An earlier version of this collection received
second place in the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society Prize for the novel.
Cut Adrift
This novel is finished and will be offered to publishers soon, along with Crocodile.
Advance Praise for Cut Adrift:
Cut Adrift is so fast, so fun, you might not notice it’s also elegantly, masterfully
written. Like the characters, we’re being seduced. And in the end, our hearts will
be broken. This novel is better, even, than Vann’s bestselling memoir, A Mile
Down, because here the narrative is created not by fate but by the desires of four
people driven blindly by sex, power, love, the longing to rise to a higher class, and
shame.
—Lalita Tademy, bestselling author of Cane River and Red River
It’s rare that a modern novel gives the true feeling of tragedy—the horrible and yet
perversely delightful feeling of watching individuals’ lives seamlessly combine to
wreak terrible sadness. David Vann plots like a dream, and he writes without
letting any of the levers of his plotting show—as if the tragedy had been pre-
written, and needed simply to be told. His mastery is effected in simple language,
and his characters—hero, villain, and all the others—are real and compelling.
Like Ian McEwan, Vann opens a door for us that leads to a dark hallway, and we
want to follow him even though we know that something terrible lies in wait there,
for a character we’ve come to love. This book is a precisely calibrated bear trap
you’ll want to step into—a nettle you’ll want to close your hand upon, to feel its
sweet sting.
—Julie Hilden, author of 3 and The Bad Daughter
Vann is the real thing. Cut Adrift explores not only our cruelty but also our frailty.
This novel has everything we darkly crave—sex, love, murder, revenge, and who
we once were—and also everything we run from, including who we are now. You’ll
read Cut Adrift in a single night.
—Keith Scribner, author of The Goodlife and Miracle Girl
© Copyright 2005-8 David Vann
Magazine Feature Articles:
Esquire (December 2007, August 2008, and September 2008)
Men's Journal (October 2007)
Outside (October 2008 and winter 2009)
Outside's GO (Fall 2008)
Also short pieces: Men's Journal (May 2007), Writer's Digest (June 2007),
Outside (July 2007, September 2008), Outside's GO (Summer 2007)
Esquire (December 2007, August 2008, and September 2008)
Men's Journal (October 2007)
Outside (October 2008 and winter 2009)
Outside's GO (Fall 2008)
Also short pieces: Men's Journal (May 2007), Writer's Digest (June 2007),
Outside (July 2007, September 2008), Outside's GO (Summer 2007)