American writer
This article needs to be updated . Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (January 2022 )
ZZ Packer
ZZ Packer at the 2009 Texas Book Festival.
Born Zuwena Packer (1973-01-12 ) January 12, 1973 (age 51) Chicago , Illinois , U.S. Period 2000-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 Writer’s 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]
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] 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.[ 6]
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 .[ 7]
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."[ 8]
"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 .[ 9]
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 .[ 10] 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".[ 11] She has been regularly contributing to The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker .
Works
Books
Anthologies
Other works
Year
Title
Publication
1999
Brownies
Harper's Magazine[ 16]
2000
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
The New Yorker[ 17]
2002
The Ant of the Self
The New Yorker[ 18]
2002
Every Tongue Shall Confess
Ploughshares[ 19]
2002
The Stranger
The Washington Post Magazine[ 20]
2004
Derby Pie
The New York Times Magazine[ 21]
2004
An Interview with John Kerry
The Believer Magazine[ 22]
2004
I Was Black, and I Told Her
O, The Oprah Magazine[ 23]
2004
Losing My Religion
Salon[ 24]
2005
'Dr. King's Refrigerator': Thinking Outside the Icebox
The New York Times Magazine[ 25]
2005
Sorry, Not Buying
The American Prospect[ 26]
2007
Buffalo Soldiers
Granta[ 27]
2007
Pita Delicious
The Washington Post Magazine[ 28]
2007
Gideon
The Guardian[ 29]
2007
The Finishing Party: ZZ Packer's Writing Group
O, The Oprah Magazine[ 30]
2008
I want Obama to be daily proof that race is no barrier
The Guardian
2008
Saved to ‘Drafts’
Granta[ 31]
2008
Working the Reunion
The New York Times Magazine[ 32]
2009
No Polenta, No Cry
The New York Times Magazine[ 33]
2009
Remembering Updike: ZZ Packer
The New Yorker[ 34]
2009
A Finished Revolution?
The Oxford American[ 35]
2009
Confessions of a Shopaholic's Wife
Glamour[ 36]
2010
Dayward
The New Yorker[ 37]
2011
Ferraro's Barack Problem
HuffPost[ 38]
2012
Keeping it Weird in Austin, Texas
Smithsonian[ 39]
2013
It's Beyoncé's World and We're Just Living In It
Newsweek[ 40]
2017
Trump Talk: Your Translation Guide
The New Yorker[ 41]
2017
What to Expect When You're Expecting Fascism
The New Yorker[ 42]
2018
News of an ‘Outrage’ Used to Mean Something Very, Very Different
The New York Times Magazine[ 43]
2018
When Is ‘Civility’ a Duty, and When Is It a Trap?
The New York Times Magazine[ 44]
2019
July 30, 1866
The New York Times Magazine[ 45]
2019
Truth And Fiction
Port Magazine[ 46]
2020
Preacher of the New Antiracist Gospel
GQ[ 47]
2020
Sarah Cooper Doesn't Mimic Trump. She Exposes Him.
The New York Times Magazine[ 48]
2020
The Empty Facts of the Breonna Taylor Decision
The New Yorker[ 49]
Awards
Other honors
Teaching
Fellowships
References
^ a b "ZZ Packer reading kicks off renowned authors series | Emory University | Atlanta GA" . news.emory.edu . Retrieved 2024-05-18 .
^ "2004 Alex Awards | Young Adult Library Services Association" . www.ala.org . Retrieved 2024-12-18 .
^ "ZZ Packer | Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs" . home.watson.brown.edu . Retrieved 2024-12-18 .
^ a b "Previous Fellows | Dobie Paisano Fellowship | The University of Texas at Austin" . dobiepaisano.utexas.edu . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ a b Birnbaum, Robert (2003-04-29). "ZZ Packer - Identity Theory" . www.identitytheory.com . Retrieved 2024-07-26 .
^ 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 .
^ "Member Bonus: ZZ Packer on the Life and Work of James Alan McPherson" . Ursa Story Company . 2023-04-05. Retrieved 2024-07-26 .
^ "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" , Barnes & Noble.
^ "10 Books Recommended by Pulitzer Prize Winners" . www.bookbub.com .
^ Walsh, Colleen (2015-03-20). "Plotting Her Return" . The Harvard Gazette .
^ "Video: ZZ Packer" . Poets & Writers . 2016-10-03. Retrieved 2024-07-26 .
^ The Best American Short Stories 2000
^ Best American Short Stories 2003
^ David Austin Gura, "ZZ Packer's edition of Southern stories straddles old and new Dixie" , Indy Week . August 20, 2008.
^ "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 .
^ Packer, Z. Z. (1999-11-01). "[Fiction] Brownies, By ZZ Packer" . Harper's Magazine . Vol. November 1999. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Packer, Z. Z. "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" . The New Yorker . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Packer, Z. Z. "The Ant of the Self" . The New Yorker . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Fall 2002 | Ploughshares" . www.pshares.org . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Packer, Z. Z. (2002-07-14). "The Stranger" . Washington Post . ISSN 0190-8286 . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Derby Pie (Published 2004)" . www.nytimes.com . 2004-10-17. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "An Interview with John Kerry" . Believer Magazine . 2004-10-01. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "O Magazine" .
^ "Losing my religion" . Salon . 2004-11-21. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ " 'Dr. King's Refrigerator': Thinking Outside the Icebox (Published 2005)" . www.nytimes.com . 2005-03-06. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Packer, Z. Z. (2005-11-20). "Sorry, Not Buying" . The American Prospect . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Buffalo Soldiers" . Granta . 2007-04-16. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Washington post" . The Washington Post .
^ Packer, Z. Z. (2007-10-06). "Short story: Gideon by ZZ Packer" . The Guardian . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "O Magazine" .
^ "Saved to 'Drafts' " . Granta . 2008-11-04. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Working the Reunion (Published 2008)" . www.nytimes.com . 2008-06-01. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "No Polenta, No Cry (Published 2009)" . www.nytimes.com . 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Packer, Z. Z. "Remembering Updike: ZZ Packer" . The New Yorker . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Issue 64, Spring 2009" . www.oxfordamerican.org . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Real Women's Money Dramas" . Glamour . July 2009. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Packer, Z. Z. "Dayward" . The New Yorker . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Andrew Foster Altschul (2008-03-15). "ZZ Packer Takes on Geraldine Ferraro" . HuffPost . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Keeping it Weird in Austin, Texas" . Smithsonian Magazine . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Packer, ZZ (2013-02-15). "It's Beyoncé's World and We're Just Living In It" . Newsweek . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Packer, Z. Z. "Trump Talk: Your Translation Guide" . The New Yorker . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Packer, Z. Z. "What to Expect When You're Expecting Fascism" . The New Yorker . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "News of an 'Outrage' Used to Mean Something Very, Very Different (Published 2018)" . www.nytimes.com . 2018-05-23. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "When Is 'Civility' a Duty, and When Is It a Trap? (Published 2018)" . www.nytimes.com . 2018-11-28. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ 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 .
^ "Port Magazine, Truth and Fiction" . 8 May 2019.
^ Packer, Z. Z. (20 August 2020). "What Happens to a Professor When His Theory of Anti-Racism Goes Mainstream?" . GQ . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Sarah Cooper Doesn't Mimic Trump. She Exposes Him" . www.nytimes.com . 2020-06-25. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ Packer, Z. Z. "The Empty Facts of the Breonna Taylor Decision" . The New Yorker . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "ZZ Packer" . www.whiting.org . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Commonwealth Club awards" (PDF) .
^ "2004 Alex Awards" . Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) . 2007-07-30. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "5 Under 35 Archives" . National Book Foundation . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ http://www.granta.com/Magazine/97October 2007
^ Tessa Decarlo, "Comedienne of Manners" , Smithsonian magazine, October 2007.
^ Bosman, Julie (2010-06-02). "20 Young Writers Earn the Envy of Many Others" . The New York Times .
^ "Francine Prose Debuts New Story During Tulane Visit" , Creative Writing at Tulane, February 25, 2009.
^ "Visiting Writers" , San Jose State University.
^ "ZZ Packer" , University of Texas, Austin
^ "- English Department - Vassar College" . english.vassar.edu .
^ "People | Iowa Writers' Workshop | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | The University of Iowa" . writersworkshop.uiowa.edu .
^ "New non-tenure track faculty join CLASS" . www.uh.edu . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "SFSU" (PDF) .
^ "MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing | "fiction" " .
^ "Ten New Faculty Appointments Join Hunter | Hunter College" . hunter.cuny.edu . 15 September 2020. Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "Bio" .
^ "Former Stegner Fellows | Creative Writing Program" . creativewriting.stanford.edu . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ a b c "ZZ Packer - Artist" . MacDowell . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ a b c "Montalvo Arts Center | ZZ Packer" . montalvoarts.org . Retrieved 2020-12-06 .
^ "News" Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine , Grotto .
^ ZZ Packer - 2010 Hodder Fellow , Lewis Center, Princeton.
^ "ZZ Packer" . Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University . April 22, 2014.
^ "Announcing the 2018-2019 Fellows" . hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu .
^ "Senior Fellows | Watson Institute" . Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs .
External links
International National Artists People Other