Tony D'Souza | |
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Born | Chicago |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of Notre Dame and Hollins University |
Tony D'Souza is an American novelist, journalist, essayist, reviewer, travel, and short story writer. He has published three novels with the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt including: Whiteman (2006), The Konkans (2008), and Mule (2011). [1]
D'Souza was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He is multiracial with his father being Mangalorean Catholic and his mother being Euro-American. [2]
While attending Carthage College, he studied fiction. He later earned his master's degree in writing from the University of Notre Dame and Hollins University. [3]
He also served for two and a half years in the Peace Corps, working in Côte d'Ivoire, where he was an AIDS educator. [4] [5] D'Souza is married, and has two children. [6]
His first published story won the Black Warrior Review's award for fiction in 1999. His short story "Club des Amis" was published in The New Yorker, [7] and D’Souza later included the essay as a part of his first novel, Whiteman, published in 2006. [8] Whiteman garnered many awards – Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York Times Editor's Pick, People Magazine Critic's Choice, the Florida Gold Medal for General Fiction, [9] and was named one of the "greatest fiction travel books of all time" by Condé Nast Traveler . [10]
His second novel, The Konkans, was published in 2008 and was called "best novel of the year" by The Washington Post. [1]
Published in 2011, Mule was praised by Entertainment Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle , Kirkus Reviews , Library Journal , and Booklist . [11] [12] It was also optioned for film by Hunting Lane Films. [13]
D'Souza has received a 2006 NEA Fellowship, a 2007 NEA Japan Friendship Fellowship, [4] and a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Arts-Fiction. [9] His work has appeared in The New Yorker , Playboy , Esquire , Outside , Mother Jones , Salon , Granta , Tin House , and McSweeney's . [9] He detailed his coverage of Nicaragua's Eric Volz murder trial on The Today Show , Dateline , Bill Kurtis Investigates, E! Channel, the BBC, and NPR. [1]