ZZ Packer

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ZZ Packer
Zz packer 2009.jpg
ZZ Packer at the 2009 Texas Book Festival.
BornZuwena Packer
(1973-01-12) January 12, 1973 (age 52)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Period2000-present

Zuwena "ZZ" Packer (born January 12, 1973) is an American writer, primarily of works of short fiction. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, a Whiting Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. [1] Her book Drinking Coffee Elsewhere won the Commonwealth First Fiction Award and an ALEX award. [2] It became a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award and was selected for the Today Show Book Club by John Updike. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Packer grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, [4] [1] and Louisville, Kentucky. "ZZ" was a childhood nickname; her given name is Zuwena. [5] [6] Packer enjoyed reading from a young age, visiting the local library daily with her mother in Atlanta. [7] Her writing was published in the magazine Seventeen at the age of 19. [5] Packer is a 1990 graduate of Seneca High School in Louisville, Kentucky. [8]

Packer attended Yale University, receiving her BA in 1994. Her graduate work included an MA at Johns Hopkins University in 1995 and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop of the University of Iowa in 1999, where she was mentored by James Alan McPherson. [9]

Career

Her work was first published in the Debut Fiction issue of The New Yorker in 2000. Her short story in the issue became the title story in her collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere . As Publishers Weekly put it, "this debut short story collection is getting the highest of accolades from the New York Times , Harper's , the New Yorker and most every other branch of the literary criticism tree." [10]

"ZZ Packer’s Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is taught in creative writing courses nationwide and with good reason. This short story collection is brimming with characters who are striving to find themselves, to understand themselves, and to survive", commented novelist Colson Whitehead. [11]

In an interview when Packer was a Radcliffe Fellow, in 2015, she reported that she working on a novel set during Reconstruction in the aftermath of the Civil War. [7] The novel-in-progress, The Thousands, "chronicles the lives of black, white, and Native American families shortly after the Civil War, through Reconstruction and the Indian Campaigns in the Southwest". [12] She has been regularly contributing to The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker .

Works

Books

YearTitle
2003 Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Anthologies

YearTitle
2000 Best American Short Stories 2000 [13]
2003Best American Short Stories 2003 [14]
2008New Stories from the South: The Year's Best [15]
2015100 Years of the Best American Short Stories [16]

Other works

YearTitlePublication
1999BrowniesHarper's Magazine [17]
2000Drinking Coffee ElsewhereThe New Yorker [18]
2002The Ant of the SelfThe New Yorker [19]
2002Every Tongue Shall ConfessPloughshares [20]
2002The StrangerThe Washington Post Magazine [21]
2004Derby PieThe New York Times Magazine [22]
2004An Interview with John KerryThe Believer Magazine [23]
2004I Was Black, and I Told HerO, The Oprah Magazine [24]
2004Losing My ReligionSalon [25]
2005'Dr. King's Refrigerator': Thinking Outside the IceboxThe New York Times Magazine [26]
2005Sorry, Not BuyingThe American Prospect [27]
2007Buffalo SoldiersGranta [28]
2007Pita DeliciousThe Washington Post Magazine [29]
2007GideonThe Guardian [30]
2007The Finishing Party: ZZ Packer's Writing GroupO, The Oprah Magazine [31]
2008I want Obama to be daily proof that race is no barrierThe Guardian
2008Saved to ‘Drafts’Granta [32]
2008Working the ReunionThe New York Times Magazine [33]
2009No Polenta, No CryThe New York Times Magazine [34]
2009Remembering Updike: ZZ PackerThe New Yorker [35]
2009A Finished Revolution?The Oxford American [36]
2009Confessions of a Shopaholic's WifeGlamour [37]
2010DaywardThe New Yorker [38]
2011Ferraro's Barack ProblemHuffPost [39]
2012Keeping it Weird in Austin, TexasSmithsonian [40]
2013It's Beyoncé's World and We're Just Living In ItNewsweek [41]
2017Trump Talk: Your Translation GuideThe New Yorker [42]
2017What to Expect When You're Expecting FascismThe New Yorker [43]
2018News of an ‘Outrage’ Used to Mean Something Very, Very DifferentThe New York Times Magazine [44]
2018When Is ‘Civility’ a Duty, and When Is It a Trap?The New York Times Magazine [45]
2019July 30, 1866The New York Times Magazine [46]
2019Truth And FictionPort Magazine [47]
2020Preacher of the New Antiracist GospelGQ [48]
2020Sarah Cooper Doesn't Mimic Trump. She Exposes Him.The New York Times Magazine [49]
2020The Empty Facts of the Breonna Taylor DecisionThe New Yorker [50]

Awards

YearTitleNotes
1997 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award Winner
1999 Whiting Award [51] Winner
1999 Bellingham Review Award Winner
2003 Commonwealth Club of California Award [52] Winner
2004 PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist
2004 PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist
2004 Alex Award [53] Winner

Other honors

YearTitle
20065 under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation [54]
2007America's Best Young Novelists by Granta [55]
2007 Smithsonian Magazine's Young Innovators [56]
2010 The New Yorker magazine's "20 under 40" luminary fiction writers. [57]

References

  1. 1 2 "ZZ Packer reading kicks off renowned authors series | Emory University | Atlanta GA". news.emory.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  2. ↑ "2004 Alex Awards | Young Adult Library Services Association". www.ala.org. Retrieved 2024-12-18.
  3. ↑ "ZZ Packer | Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs". home.watson.brown.edu. Retrieved 2024-12-18.
  4. ↑ "Previous Fellows | Dobie Paisano Fellowship | The University of Texas at Austin". dobiepaisano.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  5. 1 2 Birnbaum, Robert (2003-04-29). "ZZ Packer - Identity Theory". www.identitytheory.com. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  6. ↑ Kumar, Lisa, ed. (2004). Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields. Gale eBooks. Vol. 221. Detroit, Mich: Gale. pp. xv, 366–368. ISBN   978-0-7876-6701-6. ISSN   0010-7468.
  7. 1 2 Walsh, Colleen (2015-03-20). "Plotting Her Return". The Harvard Gazette.
  8. ↑ Hart, James D.; Martin, Wendy; Hinrichs, Danielle, eds. (2020). The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780191872112.001.0001. ISBN   978-0-19-187211-2.
  9. ↑ "Member Bonus: ZZ Packer on the Life and Work of James Alan McPherson". Ursa Story Company. 2023-04-05. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  10. ↑ "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere", Barnes & Noble.
  11. ↑ "10 Books Recommended by Pulitzer Prize Winners". www.bookbub.com.
  12. ↑ "Video: ZZ Packer". Poets & Writers. 2016-10-03. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  13. ↑ The Best American Short Stories 2000
  14. ↑ Best American Short Stories 2003
  15. ↑ David Austin Gura, "ZZ Packer's edition of Southern stories straddles old and new Dixie" Archived 2012-10-15 at the Wayback Machine , Indy Week. August 20, 2008.
  16. ↑ "Review: '100 Years of Best American Short Stories' is vital yet flawed for loading the canon". Los Angeles Times. 2015-10-09. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  17. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. (1999-11-01). "[Fiction] Brownies, By ZZ Packer". Harper's Magazine. Vol. November 1999. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  18. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  19. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. "The Ant of the Self". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  20. ↑ "Fall 2002 | Ploughshares". www.pshares.org. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  21. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. (2002-07-14). "The Stranger". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  22. ↑ "Derby Pie (Published 2004)". www.nytimes.com. 2004-10-17. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  23. ↑ "An Interview with John Kerry". Believer Magazine. 2004-10-01. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  24. ↑ "O Magazine". Archived from the original on 2021-11-28.
  25. ↑ "Losing my religion". Salon. 2004-11-21. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  26. ↑ "'Dr. King's Refrigerator': Thinking Outside the Icebox (Published 2005)". www.nytimes.com. 2005-03-06. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  27. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. (2005-11-20). "Sorry, Not Buying". The American Prospect. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  28. ↑ "Buffalo Soldiers". Granta. 2007-04-16. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  29. ↑ "Washington post". The Washington Post .
  30. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. (2007-10-06). "Short story: Gideon by ZZ Packer". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  31. ↑ "O Magazine".
  32. ↑ "Saved to 'Drafts'". Granta. 2008-11-04. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  33. ↑ "Working the Reunion (Published 2008)". www.nytimes.com. 2008-06-01. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  34. ↑ "No Polenta, No Cry (Published 2009)". www.nytimes.com. 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  35. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. "Remembering Updike: ZZ Packer". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  36. ↑ "Issue 64, Spring 2009". www.oxfordamerican.org. Archived from the original on 2020-11-29. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  37. ↑ "Real Women's Money Dramas". Glamour. July 2009. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  38. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. "Dayward". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  39. ↑ Andrew Foster Altschul (2008-03-15). "ZZ Packer Takes on Geraldine Ferraro". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  40. ↑ "Keeping it Weird in Austin, Texas". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  41. ↑ Packer, ZZ (2013-02-15). "It's Beyoncé's World and We're Just Living In It". Newsweek. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  42. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. "Trump Talk: Your Translation Guide". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  43. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. "What to Expect When You're Expecting Fascism". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  44. ↑ "News of an 'Outrage' Used to Mean Something Very, Very Different (Published 2018)". www.nytimes.com. 2018-05-23. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  45. ↑ "When Is 'Civility' a Duty, and When Is It a Trap? (Published 2018)". www.nytimes.com. 2018-11-28. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  46. ↑ Ward, Jesmyn; Jenkins, Barry; Dove, Rita (2019-08-14). "A New Literary Timeline of African-American History (Published 2019)". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  47. ↑ "Port Magazine, Truth and Fiction". 8 May 2019.
  48. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. (20 August 2020). "What Happens to a Professor When His Theory of Anti-Racism Goes Mainstream?". GQ. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  49. ↑ "Sarah Cooper Doesn't Mimic Trump. She Exposes Him". www.nytimes.com. 2020-06-25. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  50. ↑ Packer, Z. Z. "The Empty Facts of the Breonna Taylor Decision". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  51. ↑ "ZZ Packer". www.whiting.org. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  52. ↑ "Commonwealth Club awards" (PDF).
  53. ↑ "2004 Alex Awards". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). 2007-07-30. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  54. ↑ "5 Under 35 Archives". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  55. ↑ http://www.granta.com/Magazine/97October%5B%5D 2007
  56. ↑ Tessa Decarlo, "Comedienne of Manners" Archived 2011-04-02 at the Wayback Machine , Smithsonian magazine, October 2007.
  57. ↑ Bosman, Julie (2010-06-02). "20 Young Writers Earn the Envy of Many Others". The New York Times.
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