Les Standiford is an author and, since 1985, the Founding Director of the Florida International University Creative Writing Program in Miami, Florida. [1] He also holds the Peter Meinke Chair in Creative Writing at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida (named for Peter Meinke). [2] His most recent books have been narrative non-fiction historical works. His novels featuring the character "John Deal" put him in the Miami School of crime fiction, whose progenitors are Charles Willeford [3] and John D. MacDonald, and which includes Elmore Leonard, Jeff Lindsay, Carl Hiaasen, James W. Hall, Paul Levine, Edna Buchanan, and Barbara Parker.
Standiford's students have included novelists Dennis Lehane, Barbara Parker, Vicki Hendricks, Ginny Rorby, and Neil Plakcy. According to Publishers Weekly , in 1976, while he was the chairman of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Texas El Paso, "Standiford gave Raymond Carver his first job ... when Carver was recovering from his infamous alcoholic crash and burn." [4]
Standiford attended the Air Force Academy and the Columbia University School of Law, and holds a B.A. in Psychology from Muskingum College in Ohio and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah. He is a former screenwriting fellow and graduate of the American Film Institute in Los Angeles." [5]
According to the biography on his website, Standiford has been awarded the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Frank O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Fiction, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction. He is a member of the Associated Writing Programs, Mystery Writers of America, and the Writers Guild of America. [6] [2]
Standiford's wife, Kimberly Kurzweil-Standiford, is a psychotherapist and artist. They live in Pinecrest, Florida, and have three children. [2]
John Deal Miami crime novels [13]
Other novels
According to the biography on his website, "Standiford's short stories and articles have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, including Kansas Quarterly , Writer's Digest , Fodor's Guide , Smoke Magazine, the Key West Reader, Confrontation , Three American Literatures (Modern Language Association), Perfect Lies: A Century of Classic Golf Fiction, and Communion: Contemporary Fiction Writers Reread the Bible. He has been a regular reviewer for The Miami Herald , Chicago Tribune , New York Newsday , and the New York Daily News ." [6]
David McAlister Barry is an American author and columnist who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comic novels and children's novels. Barry's honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1988) and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism (2005).
Leonard Chang is a Korean American writer of short stories and novels, as well as a screenwriter and television writer/executive producer who is known for FX's Snowfall.
Elmore John Leonard Jr. was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures. Among his best-known works are Hombre, Swag, City Primeval, LaBrava, Glitz, Freaky Deaky, Get Shorty, Rum Punch, Out of Sight and Tishomingo Blues.
Michael Joseph Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. Connelly is the bestselling author of 38 novels and one work of non-fiction, with over 74 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 40 languages. His first novel, The Black Echo, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly's 1997 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of Connelly's novel The Lincoln Lawyer starred Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. Connelly was the President of the Mystery Writers of America from 2003 to 2004.
Russell Earl Banks was an American writer of fiction and poetry. His novels are known for "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters". His stories usually revolve around his own childhood experiences, and often reflect "moral themes and personal relationships".
John Dufresne is an American author of French Canadian descent born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Worcester State College in 1970 and the University of Arkansas in 1984. He is a professor in the Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing program of the English Department at Florida International University. In 2012, he won a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for his work.
Paul J. Levine is an American author of crime fiction, particularly legal thrillers. Levine has written 22 mystery novels which include two series of books known by the names of the protagonists. The Jake Lassiter series follows the former football player turned Miami lawyer in a series of fourteen books published over a thirty-year span beginning in 1990. The four-book Solomon vs. Lord series published in the mid-2000s features Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord, a pair of bickering Miami attorneys who were rivals before they became law partners and lovers. Levine has also written four stand-alone novels and 20 episodes of the television drama series JAG. With JAG executive producer Don Bellisario, he also created and produced First Monday, a 2002 CBS series inspired by one of Levine's novels.
Edna Buchanan is an American journalist and writer who is best known for her crime mystery novels. She won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting "for her versatile and consistently excellent police beat reporting."
Lynne Barrett is an American writer and editor, best known for her short stories.
Gulf Stream Magazine is a bi-annual literary magazine published by the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University. The headquarters of the magazine is in Miami, Florida.
James Grippando is an American novelist and lawyer best known as the 2017 winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.
Naked Came the Manatee (ISBN 978-0399141928) is a mystery thriller parody novel published in 1996. It is composed of thirteen chapters, each written by a different Miami-area writer. It was originally published as a serial in the Miami Herald's Tropic magazine, one chapter per issue, and later published as a single novel. Its title is a reference to the literary hoax Naked Came the Stranger. The book was conceived of and edited by Tom Shroder, then editor of Tropic. Dave Barry came up with the first chapter, which was then handed to the next writer, and so on until Carl Hiaasen had to tie all the loose threads together in the final chapter. Each chapter was written on deadline for publication in the magazine.
Neil S. Plakcy is an American writer whose works range from mystery to romance to anthologies and collections of gay erotica. Plakcy is a retired Professor of English at Broward College.
James O. Born is an American novelist who used a career in law enforcement to add realistic details and dialogue to his crime thrillers. His first novel, Walking Money, released in 2004, received rave reviews and was shortlisted for the Barry Award. His third novel, Escape Clause, won the gold medal in the inaugural Florida Book Award. He currently co-writes many of his novels with best-selling author James Patterson.
Vicki Due Hendricks is an American author of crime fiction, erotica, and a variety of short stories.
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.
Ernest Carpenter Elmore was an English theatre producer and director, and writer of crime and fantasy novels. He wrote his crime novels under the pseudonym John Bude.
James W. Hall is an American author and professor from Florida. He has written twenty-three novels, four books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and a collection of essays.
Djibouti is a 2010 crime fiction work by American writer Elmore Leonard.
Joe Clifford is an American author and editor. His work crosses genres but features mystery and crime fiction. Past struggles with addiction, about which he is candid, have fundamentally influenced his writing.