Peter Cameron (novelist)

Last updated
Peter Cameron
Born (1959-11-29) November 29, 1959 (age 64)
Pompton Plains, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • Short story writer
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Hamilton College

Peter Cameron (born November 29, 1959) is an American novelist and short-story writer. [1] Several of his works have been adapted into films. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Life and career

Cameron was born and raised in the Pompton Plains section of Pequannock Township, New Jersey. [5] He graduated in English literature in 1982 from Hamilton College. Cameron lived in Pompton Plains, London, and, later, New York City. [6]

In 1983, he published his first short story (Memorial Day) in The New Yorker; he then continued to contribute to the magazine in the following years. [7] His first book was a collection of short stories entitled One Way or Another, published by Harper & Row in 1986. His debut novel Leap Year was published by Harper & Row in 1990. His second novel, The Weekend, [8] was edited in 1994 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and adapted as the Brian Skeet film of the same name released in November 2000. [2] In 1997, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published Cameron's next novel, Andorra, [9] and The City of Your Final Destination in 2002 [10] (which in 2009 was adapted into a film of the same name directed by James Ivory). [3] In October 2007, Cameron's young adult novel Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You was published, [11] [1] and in October 2012 it was adapted into a film of the same name. [4] In March 2012, he published Coral Glynn. [12] His last novel, What Happens at Night, was published by Catapult in August 2020. [13]

In addition to his work as a writer, he has taught at Columbia, Yale and Sarah Lawrence College. Between 1990 and 1998, he worked for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. [14] In 2010, he founded Wallflower Press, whose name had to change in January 2014 to Shrinking Violet Press due to a rights conflict with Columbia University. [15] [16]

Influences

Cameron was influenced by authors such as Rose Macaulay, Barbara Pym and Margaret Drabble, [17] borrowing their aptitude for probing individual lives.

List of works

Novels

Collections

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References

  1. 1 2 "If You Really Want to Hear About It". The New York Times. November 11, 2007. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  2. 1 2 Gustavson, Eric (November 22, 2000). "FILM REVIEW; A Heartbreaker's Posthumous Power". The New York Times. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Movie Review: 'The City of Your Final Destination'". Los Angeles Times. April 23, 2010. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  4. 1 2 "When Life Seems Like One Long Rainstorm". The New York Times. October 4, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  5. ↑ Kiely, Eugene. "Peter Cameron: telling strange tales of suburbia", The Record , August 8, 1986. Accessed November 2, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "A quiet, reserved young man with an infectious smile, Cameron was born and raised in Pompton Plains".
  6. ↑ "PETER CAMERON". Istituto Italiano di Cultura, New York. March 7, 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Peter Cameron Latest Articles". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  8. ↑ Dorris, Michael (July 28, 1994). "A Gripping Tale Suffused With Repressed Emotion, Loneliness". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  9. ↑ Livesey, Margot (December 29, 1992). "The Past Is Another Country". The New York Times. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  10. ↑ "CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  11. ↑ "SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU". Kirkus Reviews. October 9, 2007. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  12. ↑ "'Coral Glynn': An Ambiguous Affair To Remember". NPR. March 6, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  13. ↑ Self, John (September 4, 2021). "What Happens at Night by Peter Cameron review — checking in at the hotel at the edge of the world". The Times. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Novelist Peter Cameron '82, H'12 to Read From His Work". Hamilton. November 5, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  15. ↑ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (December 3, 2021). "This Season's Pop-Culture Memoirs, From Will Smith to Elvira". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  16. ↑ "About Shrinking Violet Press". Shrinking Violet Press (archived). Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  17. ↑ (in Spanish)Gómez Urzaiz, Begoña (March 11, 2019). "Peter Cameron: el escritor que cuenta historias de la gente acomodada". El País. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
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