Justin Torres | |
---|---|
Born | 1980 (age 43–44) New York City, U.S. |
Occupation | Novelist, writer |
Nationality | American, Puerto Rican |
Education |
New York University The New School The University of Iowa |
Notable works |
We the Animals (2011) Blackouts (2023) |
Notable awards | First Novelist Award; National Book Award for Fiction |
Website | |
www |
Justin Torres (born 1980) is an American novelist and an Associate Professor of English at University of California, Los Angeles. [1] He won the First Novelist Award for his semi-autobiographical debut novel We the Animals (2011), which was also a Publishing Triangle Award finalist and a NAACP Image Award nominee. The novel has been adapted into a film of the same title and was awarded the Next Innovator Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. [2] Torres' second novel, Blackouts, won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. [3]
Justin Torres was born to a father of Puerto Rican descent and a mother of Italian and Irish descent. [4] He was raised in Baldwinsville, New York, as the youngest of three brothers. [5] [6] Although his novel We the Animals is not an autobiography, Torres has said that the "hard facts" in the novel mirror his own life. [6] City of God by Gil Cuadros, published in 1994, reportedly helped him to come out as gay. [7] After leaving his family home, Torres attended SUNY Purchase on scholarship but quickly dropped out. [8] He spent a few years of moving around in the country and taking whatever job came, until a friend invited him to sit in a writing course taught at The New School, which motivated him to start writing seriously. [5] [9]
In 2010, Torres received his master's degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He was a 2010–2012 Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. [10] He was a recipient of the Rolón Fellowship in Literature from United States Artists. [6] In the summer of 2016, Torres was the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany. [11] He was a former dog walker and a former employee of McNally Jackson, a bookstore in Manhattan. [6] Torres is currently an Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. [1] [12]
He has published short fiction for The New Yorker, Granta, Harper's, Tin House, Glimmer Train, The Washington Post, and other publications, as well as non-fiction for The Advocate and The Guardian. [13]
A film adaptation of We The Animals, directed by Jeremiah Zagar, premiered in 2018 at the Sundance Film Festival, [14] where it won the Next Innovator Prize. [2]
Torres' first novel, We the Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), [15] won an Indies Choice Book Awards (Adult Debut Honor Award) and was also a Publishing Triangle Award finalist and a NAACP Image Award nominee (Outstanding Literary Work, Debut Author). [16] The novel also won the 2012 First Novelist Award.
Torres was named by Salon.com as one of the sexiest men of 2011. [17] In 2012, the National Book Foundation named him among their 5 under 35 young fiction writers. [18] [19]
His 2023 novel Blackouts, a historical fiction, dealing with queer identity and historical suppression of LGBT culture, won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction [20] and was shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction [21] and the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. [22]
Torres received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024. [23]
Justin Torres | |
---|---|
Born | 1980 (age 43–44) New York City, U.S. |
Occupation | Novelist, writer |
Nationality | American, Puerto Rican |
Education |
New York University The New School The University of Iowa |
Notable works |
We the Animals (2011) Blackouts (2023) |
Notable awards | First Novelist Award; National Book Award for Fiction |
Website | |
www |
Justin Torres (born 1980) is an American novelist and an Associate Professor of English at University of California, Los Angeles. [1] He won the First Novelist Award for his semi-autobiographical debut novel We the Animals (2011), which was also a Publishing Triangle Award finalist and a NAACP Image Award nominee. The novel has been adapted into a film of the same title and was awarded the Next Innovator Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. [2] Torres' second novel, Blackouts, won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. [3]
Justin Torres was born to a father of Puerto Rican descent and a mother of Italian and Irish descent. [4] He was raised in Baldwinsville, New York, as the youngest of three brothers. [5] [6] Although his novel We the Animals is not an autobiography, Torres has said that the "hard facts" in the novel mirror his own life. [6] City of God by Gil Cuadros, published in 1994, reportedly helped him to come out as gay. [7] After leaving his family home, Torres attended SUNY Purchase on scholarship but quickly dropped out. [8] He spent a few years of moving around in the country and taking whatever job came, until a friend invited him to sit in a writing course taught at The New School, which motivated him to start writing seriously. [5] [9]
In 2010, Torres received his master's degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He was a 2010–2012 Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. [10] He was a recipient of the Rolón Fellowship in Literature from United States Artists. [6] In the summer of 2016, Torres was the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany. [11] He was a former dog walker and a former employee of McNally Jackson, a bookstore in Manhattan. [6] Torres is currently an Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. [1] [12]
He has published short fiction for The New Yorker, Granta, Harper's, Tin House, Glimmer Train, The Washington Post, and other publications, as well as non-fiction for The Advocate and The Guardian. [13]
A film adaptation of We The Animals, directed by Jeremiah Zagar, premiered in 2018 at the Sundance Film Festival, [14] where it won the Next Innovator Prize. [2]
Torres' first novel, We the Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), [15] won an Indies Choice Book Awards (Adult Debut Honor Award) and was also a Publishing Triangle Award finalist and a NAACP Image Award nominee (Outstanding Literary Work, Debut Author). [16] The novel also won the 2012 First Novelist Award.
Torres was named by Salon.com as one of the sexiest men of 2011. [17] In 2012, the National Book Foundation named him among their 5 under 35 young fiction writers. [18] [19]
His 2023 novel Blackouts, a historical fiction, dealing with queer identity and historical suppression of LGBT culture, won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction [20] and was shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction [21] and the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. [22]
Torres received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024. [23]