Howard Owen | |
|---|---|
 Owen in 2017 | |
| Born | March 1, 1949 |
| Education | |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1971–present |
| Spouse | Karen Van Neste (m. 1973) |
| Writing career | |
| Genre | Mystery and thriller fiction |
| Notable awards |
|
Howard Owen (born March 1, 1949) is an American author. He is a writer of literary fiction, mystery, and thrillers. He was the winner of the 2012 Hammett Prize awarded annually by the International Association of Crime Writers. [1] [2]
Littlejohn (1992) [3] was the first novel [4] [5] by Owen, [6] and he was 40 years old when it was first published by Permanent Press in 1989. It was followed by Fat Lightning in 1994 [7] and Answers to Lucky (1996).
His fourth novel, The Measured Man, [8] was published in hardcover by HarperCollins in 1997. It was praised in The New York Times , the Los Angeles Times , Publishers Weekly , Kirkus Reviews , the Raleigh News & Observer , the Orlando Sentinel , and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel . Chosen as one of the Los Angeles Times Book Reviews' "Recommended Titles" for 1997, it was also included in The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader's Guide. [9]
His fifth novel, Harry and Ruth, was published by The Permanent Press in September 2000 to critical acclaim from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly and various weekly publications.
His sixth novel, The Rail, was published in April 2002. It is about (among other things) baseball and the parable of the talents. His seventh novel, Turn Signal, came out in 2004 and was a Booksense selection for July 2004. His eighth novel, Rock of Ages, is a sequel to his first novel, Littlejohn. It was a Booksense pick for July 2006. His ninth novel, The Reckoning,' [10] about ghosts of the '60s, came out in late 2010 and received very positive reviews from, among others, Publishers Weekly and the New York Journal of Books.
An Owen short story, "The Thirteenth Floor," part of Richmond Noir, a mystery and crime anthology edited by Tom De Haven and Brian Castleberry with a foreword by Tom Robbins, came out in early 2010. The protagonist of "The Thirteenth Floor," Willie Black, is also at the center of Owen's 10th novel, Oregon Hill,' which was published in July 2012 to positive reviews in The New York Times , Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews. Oregon Hill has also been released as an audio book. Willie became a central character in future Owen novels: The Philadelphia Quarry [11] (2013), Parker Field (2014) and The Bottom (2015). The fifth of the Willie Black novels, [12] Grace, [13] [14] [15] was published in 2016. The Devil's Triangle (The sixth novel in the Willie Black series) is scheduled for release in 2017. [16] [17] As the seventh book in the Willie Black Series, it was followed by Scuffletown. [18] [19]
Regarding Oregon Hill, [20] a New York Times critic said Howard Owen is "a writer we can't wait to hear again. . . .Owen knows his setting, his dialogue is spot-on, and his grasp of the down-and-dirty work of the police and news reporters lends authenticity to the narrative. This is Southern literature as expected, with a touch of noir and with a touch of Dennis Lehane's Mystic River." Another writer in The New York Times Sunday Book Review said, "Owen has recruited his sick, sad and creatively crazy characters from a rough neighborhood cut off from the rest of the city when the expressway was built. If anyone is watching out for the forgotten citizens of Oregon Hill, it's Willie, who grew up there and speaks the local language, a crisp and colorful urban idiom we can't wait to hear again." [21]
Littlejohn was nominated for the (American Booksellers Association) Abbey Award and the (Barnes & Noble) Discovery award for best new fiction. Littlejohn has sold more than 50,000 copies and has been printed in Japanese, French and Korean. The book has also been a Doubleday Book Club selection, and audio [22] and large-print editions have been issued. Movie option rights for the book have been sold. All his subsequent books have continued this initial popularity and have garnered additional awards and favorable reviews. Owen’s books are available online. Most of his 11 Willie Black mysteries (Oregon Hill, The Philadelphia Quarry, Parker Field, The Bottom, Grace, The Devil’s Triangle, Scuffletown, Evergreen, Belle Isle, Jordan’s Branch andMonument) also are available as audio books. The Willie Black series is being reprinted in Italian by NNeditore. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, calledMonument “Owen’s exceptional 11thmystery” and added “Owen has outdone himself.”
Howard Owen was born March 1, 1949, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He and his wife since 1973, Karen Van Neste Owen [23] (the former publisher of Van Neste Books), live in Richmond, Virginia, a city which is the setting for most of his writing and the residence of one of his favorite fictional characters, Willie Black.
He was a 1971 journalism graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and he earned a master's degree in English from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1981.
Owen was a sports editor at The Richmond Times-Dispatch and editorial page editor of the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He retired in 2015 after 44 years as a reporter and editor. While a working journalist, he wrote his first novel, Littlejohn, in 1989, when he was 40. [24] Littlejohn was bought by The Permanent Press and published in 1992. Random House bought it from The Permanent Press and reissued it as a Villard (imprint) hardcover in 1993 and a Vintage Contemporary paperback in 1994.
In 2002 Owen won Richmond Magazine's Theresa Pollak Award for Words. He was awarded the Hammett Prize in 2012. [25] He appeared at the Carytown, Richmond, Virginia, book store Chop Suey Books and on a Channel Six CBS "Virginia This Morning" televised interview in 2012. [26] He was a featured guest at the "Festival of the Written Word" in Chesterfield, Virginia in 2015. [27] In 2017 Owen was the honored author at the Virginia Commonwealth University annual Monroe Scholars Book and Author Luncheon, at which he was introduced by fellow novelist Tom De Haven. [28]
A July 12, 2017 cover story, "Richmond Noir: Author Howard Owen's hard-bitten reporter roams our streets for the sixth time" by Jackie Kruszewski, was featured in Style Weekly magazine. [29]
Sam Spade is a fictional character and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon. Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett.
Oregon Hill is a historic working-class neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia. Oregon Hill overlooks the James River and Belle Isle, and provides access to Hollywood Cemetery. Due to the neighborhood's proximity to the Monroe Park Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, the neighborhood is sometimes referred to as a student quarter because of its high college student population.
William Browning Spencer is an American novelist and short story writer living in Austin, Texas. His science fiction and horror stories are often darkly and surrealistically humorous.
Tod Goldberg is an American author and journalist best known for his novels Gangsters Don't Die (Counterpoint), Gangster Nation (Counterpoint), Gangsterland (Counterpoint) and Living Dead Girl, the popular Burn Notice series (Penguin/NAL) and the short story collection The Low Desert: Gangster Stories (Counterpoint).
Kenji Jasper is an American writer and journalist. He has worked in writing and journalism for over 20 years.
Owen Philip King is an American author of novels and graphic novels, and a television film producer. He published his first book, We're All in This Together, in 2005 to generally positive reviews, but his first full-length novel, Double Feature, had a less enthusiastic reception. King collaborated with his father, writer Stephen King, in the writing of the women's prison novel, Sleeping Beauties and the graphic novel of the same name.
David Fulmer is an American author, journalist, and filmmaker.
Kristin F. Cast is a Nigerian American author of young adult books and graphic novels, best known for the House of Night series and Sisters of Salem series, written with her mother, P. C. Cast.
Peter Spiegelman is an American crime fiction author and former Wall Street executive. He is most known for his series of books following the cases of the Manhattan-based private eye, John March, winning a Shamus Award for the first novel in the series. He lives with his family in Connecticut.
Wallace Stroby is an American crime fiction author and journalist. He is the author of eight novels, four of which feature Crissa Stone, a female professional thief.
J. T. Ellison is a New York Times bestselling American author. She writes domestic noir and psychological thrillers, the latter starring Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medical examiner Dr. Samantha Owens. She also pens the "A Brit in the FBI" series with #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter. With over a million books in print, Ellison's work has been published in twenty-eight countries and sixteen languages. She is also the co-host of the Emmy Award-winning television series, A Word on Words, which airs on Nashville Public Television. Ellison is also the founder of Two Tales Press, an independent publishing house, and The Wine Vixen, a wine review website. She lives with her husband in Nashville, Tennessee.
Steven Gregory Spruill is an author of horror, science fiction, and thriller novels, best known for his "hemophage" novels: Rulers of Darkness, Daughter of Darkness, and Lords of Light. He has also written under the names Steve Harriman and Steve Lyon.
Paradise Sky is a novel written by American author Joe R. Lansdale, published by Mulholland Books. It takes place in the post American Civil War era.
Owen Matthew Sellers Laukkanen is a Canadian mystery writer, the creator of the Stevens and Windermere series, among other novels. His first novel, The Professionals, was a finalist for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel at Bouchercon 2013, the annual World Mystery Convention. It was also listed as one of the top 100 novels of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews. Laukkanen lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
A Borrowed Man is a 2015 science fiction hardboiled noir novel by Gene Wolfe.
Carter Wilson is an American novelist and short-fiction writer based in Erie, Colorado. He is best known for his works of domestic and psychological suspense. Wilson is an author of eight books.
Shawn Andre Cosby is an American author of "Southern noir" crime fiction. He resides in Gloucester, Virginia, on the York River. Cosby has published four crime novels: My Darkest Prayer, Blacktop Wasteland, Razorblade Tears, and All the Sinners Bleed.
Razorblade Tears: A Novel is a crime novel by S. A. Cosby, published in July 2021 by Flatiron Books. This novel debuted at number 10 on the New York Times bestseller list. Jerry Bruckheimer's company has "optioned the story for Paramount."
An Extraordinary Union is a 2017 romance novel by American author Alyssa Cole. It was received favorably by critics and named to multiple best-of lists. It won multiple awards but was passed over by Romance Writers of America's nominations process for their major award, sparking discussions of racism within the romance fiction industry.
Ghost is a young adult novel by Jason Reynolds, published August 30, 2016 by Atheneum Books. It is the first book of Reynold's Track series, followed by Patina (2017), Sunny (2018), and Lu (2018).
{{cite web}}: |last1= has generic name (help)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
