Drew Nellins Smith

Last updated

Drew Nellins Smith
Alma mater University of Texas at Austin
OccupationWriter
Notable workArcade

Drew Nellins Smith is an American writer. In 2016 Smith published the novel Arcade.

Contents

Early life

Smith grew up in Hillsboro, Texas. He then attended University of Texas at Austin, majoring English Literature. [1]

Writing career

Smith has written for publications including Tin House , The Millions , and the Los Angeles Times . [1] He has also reviewed books for publications including The Washington Post , [2] the Dallas Morning News , [3] and The Daily Beast . [4] In 2016 Smith released his first novel Arcade. [5] The book, based in Texas, [6] follows the story of narrator Sam, who after a failed relationship, begins pursuing a lifestyle of anonymous sex in an adult book store. The foundation of the work comes from a real-life bookstore that existed in Austin off U.S. Highway 290 that the author once frequented; he has stated that the book is largely based upon his own journey of coming out. [1] The Los Angeles Review of Books wrote of his writing that, "guides us through this world of secret transactions and unwritten rules with skill and precision." [7] Smith has also written on similar topics in publications like Vice . [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry McMurtry</span> American novelist (1936–2021)

Larry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, prominent book collector, bookseller and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations.

John Francisco Rechy is a Mexican-American novelist and essayist. His novels, are written extensively about gay culture in Los Angeles and wider America, among other subject matter. City of Night, his debut novel published in 1963, was a best seller. Drawing on his own background, he has contributed to Mexican-American literature, notably with his novel The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez, which has been taught in several Chicano studies courses throughout the United States. But, even after the success of his first novel, he still worked as a prostitute, teaching during the day, and hustling at night. He worked as a prostitute into his forties while also teaching at UCLA. Through the 1970's and 1980's he dealt with personal drug use, as well as the AIDS crisis, which killed many of his friends.

Suzanne Finstad is a bestselling American author, biographer, journalist, producer, and lawyer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Chee</span> American writer

Alexander Chee is an American fiction writer, poet, journalist and reviewer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Wright</span> American writer and journalist (born 1947)

Lawrence Wright is an American writer and journalist, who is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. Wright is best known as the author of the 2006 nonfiction book Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Wright is also known for his work with documentarian Alex Gibney who directed film versions of Wright's one man show My Trip to Al-Qaeda and his book Going Clear. His 2020 novel, The End of October, a thriller about a pandemic, was released in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, to generally positive reviews.

Daniel Curzon is a novelist, playwright, educator, and writer of etiquette manuals for gay men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark McKinnon</span> American political consultant

Mark David McKinnon is an American political advisor, reform advocate, media columnist, and television producer. He was the chief media advisor to five successful presidential primary and general election campaigns, and is a co-founder of No Labels, an organization dedicated to bipartisanship and political problem solving. He served as vice chairman of Public Strategies, Inc., which was acquired by the international communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton Strategies, and was president of Maverick Media. McKinnon is the co-creator, co-executive producer, and co-host of Showtime's The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth and consulted on the HBO series The Newsroom and Netflix's House of Cards. He was a regular columnist for The Daily Beast and The Daily Telegraph (London).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Kushner</span> American writer

Rachel Kushner is an American writer, known for her novels Telex from Cuba (2008), The Flamethrowers (2013), and The Mars Room (2018).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Fountain</span> American fiction writer

Ben Fountain is an American writer currently living in Dallas, Texas. He has won many awards including a PEN/Hemingway award for Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories (2007) and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction for his debut novel Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2012).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philipp Meyer</span> American novelist

Philipp Meyer is an American fiction writer, and is the author of the novels American Rust and The Son, as well as short stories published in The New Yorker and other places. Meyer also created and produced the AMC television show based on his novel. Meyer won the 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was the recipient of a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship and was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize. He won the 2014 Lucien Barrière prize in France and the 2015 Prix Littérature-Monde Prize in France. In 2017 he was named a Chevalier (Knight) in France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hilburn</span> American journalist

Robert Hilburn is an American pop music critic, author, and radio host. As critic and music editor at the Los Angeles Times from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles appeared in publications around the world. Hilburn has since written a memoir and best-selling biographies of Johnny Cash and Paul Simon. He was a member of the nominating committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for more than twenty years, and lives in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debra Monroe</span>

Debra Monroe is an American novelist, short story writer, memoirist, and essayist. She has written seven books, including two story collections, a collection of essays, two novels, and two memoirs, and is also editor of an anthology of nonfiction. Monroe has been twice nominated for the National Book Award, is a winner of the prestigious Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and was cited on several "10 Best Books" lists for her nationally-acclaimed memoir, On the Outskirts of Normal: Forging a Family Against the Grain.

Lorraine Adams is an American journalist and novelist. As a journalist, she is known as a contributor to the New York Times Book Review, and a former contributor to The Washington Post. As a novelist, she is known for the award-winning Harbor and its follow-up, The Room and the Chair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryan Burrough</span> American journalist

Bryan Burrough is an American author and correspondent for Vanity Fair. He has written six books. Burrough was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Dallas, Texas, between 1983 and 1992. He has written for Vanity Fair since 1992. While reporting for The Wall Street Journal, he won the Gerard Loeb Award for excellence in financial journalism three times. Burrough has written a number of book reviews and op-ed articles for publications such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. He has also made appearances on Today, Good Morning America, and many documentaries.

C. W. Smith is a novelist, short-story and essay writer who serves as a Dedman Family Distinguished Professor in the Department of English at Southern Methodist University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elliot Ackerman</span> American author

Elliot Ackerman is an American author and former Marine Corps special operations team leader. He is the New York Times–bestselling author of the novels 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, Red Dress In Black and White, Waiting for Eden, Dark at the Crossing, and Green on Blue, and the upcoming Halcyon: A Novel, as well as the memoirs The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan and Placesand Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning. His books have received significant critical acclaim, including nominations for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medals in both fiction and non-fiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He served as a White House fellow in the Obama administration and is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a contributing writer to The Atlantic and The New York Times. He was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with Valor, and a Purple Heart during his five deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Minutaglio</span> American journalist

Bill Minutaglio is a journalist, educator and author of nine books. He is the recipient of a PEN Center USA Literary Award and has served as a professor at The University of Texas at Austin, where he was given The Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Bernstein</span> American novelist

Patricia Bernstein is an American writer and public relations expert. She is best known for her books Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan, The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP, and debut novel, A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower.

Richard Clay Reynolds was a Texan novelist, essayist, book critic and English professor. Author of more than 10 books of fiction, five books of nonfiction, hundreds of published essays and 1000+ critical book reviews, he lived and taught at universities in Texas and elsewhere.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Schaub, Michael (June 17, 2016). "Sex and Texas: Drew Nellins Smith on fiction, fact and his debut novel, 'Arcade'". Los Angeles Times .
  2. Smith, Drew Nellins (March 1, 2018). "Review - A man and his son with special needs make their final days together count". The Washington Post via www.washingtonpost.com.
  3. "Fiction: 'The Association of Small Bombs,' by Karan Mahajan". Dallas Morning News. April 1, 2016.
  4. Smith, Drew (October 1, 2014). "Lars Iyer's 'Wittgenstein Jr.' Plumbs the Deep Fun of Philosophical Fiction". The Daily Beast via www.thedailybeast.com.
  5. "Fiction Book Review: Arcade by Drew Nellins Smith". Publishers Weekly.
  6. "ARCADE by Drew Nellins Smith". Kirkus Reviews.
  7. "The Unseen: On Drew Nellins Smith's "Arcade" - Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. October 6, 2016.
  8. "What I Miss About Being in the Closet". Vice. September 29, 2016.