William Kent Krueger

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William Kent Krueger
William Kent Krueger at Common Good Books - cropped.jpg
Krueger at a book signing in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Born (1950-11-16) November 16, 1950 (age 73)
Torrington, Wyoming, U.S.
OccupationNovelist
Period1998–present
Genre Mystery, crime fiction
Subject Minnesota, Native American Indian Tribes, Anishinaabe (Ojibwe)
Notable worksIron Lake, Cork O'Connor Series
Notable awardsBush Artist Fellowship
1988

Loft-McKnight Fiction Award
1998 Iron Lake
Anthony Award for Best First Novel
1999 Iron Lake
Barry Award for Best First Novel
1999 Iron Lake
Anthony Award for Best Novel
2005 Blood Hollow
Anthony Award for Best Novel
2006 Mercy Falls

Contents

Edgar Award for Best Novel
2013 Ordinary Grace
Website
www.williamkentkrueger.com

William Kent Krueger (born November 16, 1950) is an American novelist and crime writer, best known for his series of novels featuring Cork O'Connor, which are set mainly in Minnesota. [1] In 2005 and 2006, he won back-to-back Anthony Awards for best novel. [2] In 2014, his stand-alone book Ordinary Grace won the Edgar Award for Best Novel of 2013. [3] In 2019, This Tender Land was on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly six months. [4]

Biographical details

Krueger has said that he wanted to be a writer from the third grade when his story "The Walking Dictionary" was praised by his teacher and parents. [5]

He attended Stanford University, but his academic path was cut short when he came into conflict with the university's administration during student protests of spring 1970. [5] Throughout his early life, he supported himself by logging timber, digging ditches, working in construction, and being published as a freelance journalist; he never stopped writing. [5]

He wrote short stories and sketches for many years, but it was not until the age of 40 that he finished the manuscript of his first novel, Iron Lake. It won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, the Barry Award for Best First Novel, the Minnesota Book Award, and the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award. [5]

Krueger is married and has two children. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota. [1]

Writing influences

Krueger has said his favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird . He grew up reading Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James T. Farrell. Most influential among these was Hemingway. In an interview for Shots magazine, Krueger described his admiration for Hemingway's prose:

His prose is clean, his word choice perfect, his cadence precise and powerful. He wastes nothing. In Hemingway, what's not said is often the whole point of a story. I like that idea, leaving the heart off the page so that the words, the prose itself, is the first thing to pierce you. Then the meaning comes. [5]

As a mystery genre writer, Krueger credits Tony Hillerman and James Lee Burke as his strongest influences. [5]

Writing process

Krueger prefers to write early in the morning. He began writing in his 30s and had to make time for writing early in the morning before going to work at the University of Minnesota. Rising at 5:30 am, he would go to the nearby St. Clair Broiler, where he would drink coffee and write longhand in wire-bound notebooks. [5] [6] In return for his loyalty, the restaurant has hosted book launches for him. At one of them, the staff wore T-shirts emblazoned with "A nice place to visit. A great place to die." [7] The St. Clair Broiler permanently closed in the fall of 2017.

Setting for the Cork O'Connor series

When Krueger decided to set the series in northern Minnesota, he realized that a large percentage of the population was of mixed ancestry. In college, he had wanted to become a cultural anthropologist; he became intrigued by researching the Ojibwe culture and weaving the information into his books. His books are set in and around Native American reservations. The main character, Cork O'Connor, is part Ojibwe and part Irish. [8]

History was a study in futility. Because people never learned. Century after century, they committed the same atrocities against one another or against the earth, and the only thing that changed was the magnitude of the slaughter... Conscience was a devil that plagued the individual. Collectively, a people squashed it as easily as stepping on a daisy.

— William Kent Krueger, Purgatory Ridge

Krueger has read the first Ojibwe historian, William Whipple Warren, Gerald Vizenor and Basil Johnston. He has also read novels by Louise Erdrich and Jim Northrup. Krueger began to meet the Ojibwe people and because of his interest in their culture. [8]

Krueger believes that the sense of place is made resonant by the actions and emotions of the characters within it. He describes it as "a dynamic bond that has the potential to heighten the drama of every scene." [9]

Bibliography

Cork O'Connor

  1. Iron Lake
    • Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (1998), ISBN   0-671-01696-2
    • Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, paperback (1999), ISBN   0-671-01697-0
    • Recorded Books (2010), ISBN   1-4407-5520-5, ISBN   978-1-4407-5520-0
  2. Boundary Waters
  3. Purgatory Ridge
  4. Blood Hollow
  5. Mercy Falls
  6. Copper River
  7. Thunder Bay
  8. Red Knife
  9. Heaven's Keep
  10. Vermilion Drift
  11. Northwest Angle
  12. Trickster's Point
  13. Tamarack County
  14. Windigo Island
  15. Manitou Canyon
  16. Sulphur Springs
  17. Desolation Mountain
  18. Lightning Strike
  19. Fox Creek

Stand-alone novels

Anthologies

Awards

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References

  1. 1 2 "William Kent Krueger Official website" . Retrieved May 20, 2008.
  2. ↑ "Anthonys 2005–2009". Bouchercon World Mystery Convention. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
  3. ↑ ""The Edgar Award Winners" – list of 2013 winners". May 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  4. ↑ "William Kent Krueger Official website" . Retrieved November 30, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Interview with William Kent Krueger". Shots Magazine. Retrieved May 20, 2008.
  6. ↑ "Interview with William Kent Krueger". Kaliber .38 (magazine). Retrieved May 20, 2008.
  7. ↑ "William Kent Krueger". City Pages. Retrieved May 20, 2008.
  8. 1 2 "Simon and Schuster Interview with William Kent Krueger". Archived from the original on September 24, 2008. Retrieved May 20, 2008.
  9. ↑ "Interview with William Kent Krueger". Book Reporter. Retrieved May 20, 2008.
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