Chris Offutt

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Chris Offutt (born August 24, 1958) is an American author of fiction and memoirs.

Offutt was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and is the son of author Andrew J. Offutt. He grew up in Haldeman, Kentucky, a former mining community of 200 people in the Appalachian Mountains. Offutt quit high school to join the army, but failed the physical. He then attended Morehead State University and graduated with a degree in theater and a minor in art. In 1992, he published his debut short story collection, Kentucky Straight. His second book was the 1993 memoir The Same River Twice, and in 1997 he published his first novel, The Good Brother. In 1999, he published his second book of stories, Out of the Woods, followed in 2002 by No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home, about a visit he made back to Haldeman.

His work has received awards from the Lannan Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Whiting Foundation. Offutt was also named one of the twenty best young American fiction writers by Granta. [1] His books are widely translated. In 1999, the French version of The Same River Twice (translated under the title Le Fleuve et l'Enfant) brought the translator, Ann Wicke, the Prix Maurice Edgar Coindreau, awarded annually by La Société des Gens de Lettres de France for the best translation from a work in English. [2] The governor of Kentucky commissioned him in 1998 as an honorary Kentucky Colonel.^{[citation needed]}

Offutt's non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Men's Journal, and Oxford American, and on National Public Radio.

In 2005, Offutt made his comic-writing debut with "Another Man's Escape" in Michael Chabon Presents: The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist No. 6. He has also written three comics-related essays: "NoMan was My Man" was included in Give our Regards to the Atomsmashers!: Writers on Comics (2004), "Why I Love Comics" appeared in RoadStrips: A Graphic Journey Across America (2005), and "The Silver Age" in Tin House Magazine. He has also written screenplays.