Brian Doyle (American writer)

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Brian Doyle
BornBrian James Patrick Doyle
1956 (1956)
New York City, U.S.
DiedMay (aged 60)
Lake Oswego, Oregon, U.S.
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of Notre Dame
Notable awards Pushcart Prize (x3)
SpouseMary Miller
Children3

Brian James Patrick Doyle was an American writer. [1] [2] He was a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and three Pushcart Prizes. [3] [4]

Contents

He lived with his wife and three children in Portland, Oregon. In May 2017, he died at the age of 60 due to a brain tumor. [3] [5]

Early life and career

He was born in 1956 in New York City to an Irish Catholic family. [4] His mother, Ethel Clancey Doyle, was a teacher, and his father, James Doyle, was a journalist. [6] Doyle credits becoming a writer to his father:

But in almost every class I am asked how I became a writer, and after I make my usual joke about it being a benign neurosis, as my late friend George Higgins once told me, I usually talk about my dad. My dad was a newspaperman, and still is, at age 92, a man of great grace and patience and dignity, and he taught me immensely valuable lessons. If you wish to be a writer, write, he would say. There are people who talk about writing and then there are people who sit down and type. Writing is fast typing. Also you must read like you are starving for ink. Read widely. Read everything. Read the Bible once a year or so, ideally the King James, to be reminded that rhythm and cadence are your friends as a writer. Most religious writing is terrible whereas some spiritual writing is stunning. The New Testament in the King James version, for example. —Brian Doyle, writing in The American Scholar (August 23, 2013) [7]

He studied at the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated with a major in English in 1978. [3]

Before moving to Oregon, Doyle worked at the U.S. Catholic and Boston College magazines. [6] He later married artist Mary Miller. [6] They would go on to have three children, a daughter and twin sons, who often inspired Doyle's work. [8]

Doyle was also an editor of Portland Magazine . [3]

Doyle's essays and poems have appeared in magazines and journals such as The Atlantic Monthly , Harper's , The American Scholar , Orion , Commonweal , and The Georgia Review and in newspapers such as The Times of London , The Sydney Morning Herald , The Kansas City Star , The San Francisco Chronicle , The Ottawa Citizen , and Newsday . He was a book reviewer for The Oregonian and a contributing essayist to both Eureka Street magazine and The Age newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. [3]

Bibliography

Fiction

Nonfiction

Poetry

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References

  1. ↑ "Paying our respects to Brian Doyle". America Magazine. May 30, 2017.
  2. ↑ ""Greetings, Friends!": The New Yorker's 2016 Christmas Poem". The New Yorker. December 12, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Oregonian/OregonLive, Amy Wang | The (May 28, 2017). "Lake Oswego author Brian Doyle dies at age 60". The Oregonian .{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Brian James Patrick Doyle (1956–2017)". The Oregon Encyclopedia .
  5. ↑ "Oregon Author Brian Doyle Dies At 60". Oregon Public Broadcasting .
  6. 1 2 3 Oregonian/OregonLive, Amy Wang | The (May 28, 2017). "Lake Oswego author Brian Doyle dies at age 60". oregonlive. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  7. ↑ "How Did You Become a Writer?". The American Scholar. August 23, 2013. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  8. ↑ "The works of Brian Doyle remind us of the unique holiness of children and childhood". America Magazine. May 5, 2023. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Madden, Patrick (2018). "The Essay-Lover's Guide to Brian Doyle". Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction. 20 (2): 217–236 – via JSTOR.
  10. ↑ Oregonian/OregonLive, Amy Wang | The (March 28, 2017). "Brian Doyle celebrates storytelling in novel about Robert Louis Stevenson". The Oregonian.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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