André Aciman

Andre Aciman

Andre Aciman in 2009
Born Alexandria, Egypt[1]
Occupation writer
Period 1990s-2000s
Genres short story, novel, essay

André Aciman (born in Alexandria, Egypt)[1][4] is a writer, currently distinguished professor at the Graduate Center of City University of New York[5] teaching the history of literary theory and the works of Marcel Proust.[6] His memoir, Out of Egypt (1995), won a Whiting Writers' Award.[7] He previously taught creative writing at New York University and French literature at Princeton University.[4][8] In 2009 Aciman was Visiting Distinguished Writer at Wesleyan University.[9][10][11]

Aciman was born in Egypt in a French-speaking home where family members also spoke Italian, Greek, Ladino, and Arabic.[4] His family were Jews of Turkish and Italian origin who settled in Alexandria, Egypt in 1905.[8] Aciman moved with his family to Italy at the age of fifteen and then to New York at nineteen.[4]

Contents

Out of Egypt

Aciman's 1995 memoir, Out of Egypt, was reviewed widely.[12][13] In The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani described the volume as a "remarkable memoir...that leaves the reader with a mesmerizing portrait of a now vanished world."[8] She compared his work with that of Lawrence Durrell and also wrote: "There are some wonderfully vivid scenes here, as strange and marvelous as something in Garcia Marquez, as comical and surprising as something in Chekhov."[8]

Books

References

  1. ^ a b Epstein, Joseph. "Funny, But I Do Look Jewish", The Weekly Standard December 15, 2003
  2. ^ a b Meaney, Thomas (2007-Feb/Mar). "Naming Youths". Bookforum. http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/013_05/467. Retrieved 2009-09-21. "How strange that Aciman's first novel should run against the Proustian grain." 
  3. ^ Aciman, Andre (2004-06-16). "Sailing to Byzantium by Way of Ithaca". The New York Sun: p. 1. "Proust fans filled the Celeste Bartos Forum at the New York Public Library on Wednesday for an evening titled 'The Proust Project: A Discussion With Latter-Day Disciples, Admirers, and Shameless Imitators.' The event celebrated the publication of a book called The Proust Project in which Andre Aciman, a professor at CUNY Graduate Center, asked a group of writers to reflect on In Search of Lost Time." 
  4. ^ a b c d Meet the author: Aciman says he's all his characters, Marin Independent Journal, May 24, 2008
  5. ^ a b c d "André Aciman". City University of New York. http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/new_faculty/Aciman.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-18. 
  6. ^ a b c "André Aciman". City University of New York. http://web.gc.cuny.edu/Complit/faculty_pages/aaciman.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-18. 
  7. ^ "Winners of Whiting Awards". The New York Times: p. C.15. 1995-10-30. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60614FC3E5D0C738FDDA90994DD494D81. Retrieved 2009-09-21. "Andre Aciman, whose first book, Out of Egypt (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995), chronicles his childhood in Alexandria, Egypt." 
  8. ^ a b c d Kakutani, Michiko (1994-12-27). "Books of the Times: Alexandria, and in Just One Volume". The New York Times: p. 21. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/27/books/books-of-the-times-alexandria-and-in-just-one-volume.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2009-09-21. 
  9. ^ http://wesleyanargus.com/2009/03/27/novelist-and-visiting-prof-andre-aciman-shares-his-creative-process/
  10. ^ http://www.google.com/profiles/aciman
  11. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Andre-Aciman/e/B000AQ43NO
  12. ^ "Exodus From Egypt," The Washington Post, Feb. 15, 1995, P. D02
  13. ^ Walters, Colin. "Visit to 'very small, very strange world'" The Washington Times, March 19, 1995, Page B6
  14. ^ Ormsby, Eric (2007-01-24). "Nature Loves to Hide". The New York Sun: p. 13. "pays its respects to Proust but is brilliantly original....This is a novel of seduction in which the final prize is to win back something small but precious from the coquettishness of memory." 
  15. ^ D'Erasmo, Stacey (2007-01-25). "Suddenly One Summer". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/books/review/DErasmo.t.html?scp=2&sq=aciman&st=cse. Retrieved 2009-09-21. "This novel is hot. A coming-of-age story, a coming-out story, a Proustian meditation on time and desire, a love letter, an invocation and something of an epitaph, Call Me by Your Name is also an open question. It is an exceptionally beautiful book." 

External links