Dave King (novelist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other persons of the same name, see David King.

Dave King is a novelist and poet who lives in Brooklyn, in New York City. He was born in 1955 in Meriden, Connecticut. His father, Henry T. King, was a U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.

His first novel, The Ha-Ha, was published in 2005 and was named one of the best books of that year by the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.


Contents

[edit] Life

King holds a BFA in painting and film from Cooper Union (received 1980) and an MFA in writing from Columbia University (2000). At Cooper Union, he studied with Jim Dine, Lee Krasner, and Robert Breer, among others. He was part of the East Village art scene, then formed a company specializing in murals and trompe-l'œil painting. That company, with which King is no longer affiliated, still exists under the name Franklin Tartaglione, LLC. At Columbia, he worked with Michael Cunningham, Fenton Johnson, Richard Howard, April Bernard, Lucie Brock Broido and David Plante. The Ha-Ha, in substantially different form, was his thesis project.

King was awarded the 2006-07 John Guare Writers Fund Rome Prize Fellowship in Literature at the American Academy in Rome.

King's life partner is the painter Franklin Tartaglione. The two have been a couple since 1975.

[edit] Poetry

King’s poetry has been published in The Paris Review and Big City Lit, and he has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

[edit] Editorial Work

In 1998 and 1999, King was editor-in-chief of Columbia, Columbia University’s literary journal. While completing The Ha-Ha, he worked as an editor at The Little Bookroom, in New York.

[edit] Reviews

  • "A writer to watch."
Kirkus Reviews
  • “Everyone who reads this book will have a different moment when Howie becomes that irresistible force, a narrator you’d follow anywhere….Howie’s desire to do whatever’s right, his ambivalence, his blunt way of seeing things—these qualities make him a wonderful companion….It’s a rare pleasure to spend time with someone so utterly incapable of being a hypocrite.”
Claire Dederer, Newsday
  • "In this brave and graceful novel, Dave King vividly connects us to a character whose own connections to the outside world are almost nonexistent. As readers, we get to see inside this man, flawed and funny and complex and tragic as he is, in a way no one around him can, and we are grateful to Dave King for that privilege."
Carolyn Parkhurst
  • "The Ha-Ha is an immense pleasure. Stylish and assured, filled with wit and wisdom, its narrative depth and rich characterizations are all the more impressive when one considers that this is Mr. King's first novel, the beginning of what promises to be a wonderful journey—for him, and us."
Nicholas Christopher
  • "The Ha-Ha is a merry, serious inquiry into how love is given and accepted by memorable stirring characters for whom you will find yourself cheering. Cheer too for Dave King's accomplished debut."
Frederick Busch
  • "Frank O’Connor once suggested that the single quality necessary to fiction is an “intense awareness of human loneliness.” Dave King displays this quality in The Ha-Ha, a first novel of uncommon literary elegance and abiding compassion for its many troubled characters."
Melvin Jules Bukiet

[edit] External links