Craig Nova

Craig Nova
Born (1945-07-05) July 5, 1945
Los Angeles, California, US
EducationUC Berkeley
Columbia University
OccupationsWriter, educator
Notable workThe Good Son (1982)
Spouse
Christina Barnes
​
(m. 1993)​
[1]
Children2[2]
WebsiteOfficial website

Craig Nova (born July 5, 1945, in Los Angeles) is an American writer and novelist.[3][4] Since 1972, he has published 14 novels and 1 autobiography,[4] with his 15th novel, The Last Sweet Taste, slated for release on July 7, 2026.[5] His 2002 Wetware was made into a 2018 film of the same name starring Jerry O'Connell .[6] His writing has appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, and The New York Times Magazine, among others.[7] His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship,[8] three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships,[9][10][11] and an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.[12]

Biography

Nova was born in Los Angeles and raised in Hollywood, California.[2][4][3] His father worked in the aerospace industry.[4][1][13] Growing up, he played with the daughter of Jayne Mansfield and raced cars with Steve McQueen.[4][1] At age 17, he moved in with a family friend, whose father was a writer.[4][2] Nova earned an undergraduate degree at University of California, Berkeley[14][1] and an MFA from Columbia University's writing program.[15][1]

Nova's first novel, Turkey Hash (1972), won the Harper-Saxon award in its publication year.[16] This book was followed by The Geek (1975), which featured illustrations by Brad Holland.[17] Nova was inspired to write The Good Son (1982), which follows a former military pilot in the aftermath of World War II, by his father-in-law, who himself was imprisoned in a German concentration camp after being shot down in combat.[2] The novel is broken up into different "books", each narrated by a different character.[18] The sequel, All the Dead Yale Men, was released in 2013.[2] Nova's book Cruisers (2004) was inspired by the 1997 Colebrook Incident in New Hampshire.[19] The Constant Heart (2012) was included in that year's New Yorker's Best Books list.[20] As of April 2026, he has released 14 novels and 1 autobiography, with another novel slated for release in July 2026.[5]

In addition to writing, Nova has also taught at Duke University[2] and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG).[20][14][7][21] He was a visiting creative writing instructor at Drew University in 1975.[22] In 2005, he was made the Class of 1949 Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at UNCG.[23] He served on the judge panels for the 2006 National Book Awards[24] and the 2012 PEN/Hemingway Award.[14]

Personal life

Nova is married to Christina Barnes, a graduate of MIT and a former employee of CBS News. They wed in New York City before moving to Vermont, where Nova's maternal grandfather had land, to start a family.[1][4][13] They have two daughters, Abby and Tate.[1][2] In 2004, they lived in Putney, Vermont,[4] but have since moved to North Carolina. The couple's Hillsborough house was featured in The News & Observer in 2022.[25]

Awards and honors

Bibliography

Novels

  • Turkey Hash. Harper & Row. 1972. ISBN 9780060132248.
  • The Geek. Harper & Row. 1975. ISBN 9780060132095.
  • Incandescence. Harper & Row. 1979. ISBN 9780060131968.
  • The Good Son. Delacorte Press. 1982. ISBN 9780440029168.
  • The Congressman's Daughter. Delacorte Press. 1986. ISBN 9780385294553.
  • Tornado Alley. Delacorte Press. 1989. ISBN 9780440502012.
  • Trombone. Grove Press. 1992. ISBN 9780802113597.
  • The Book of Dreams. Ticknor and Fields. 1994. ISBN 9780395636503.
  • The Universal Donor. Houghton Mifflin. 1997. ISBN 9780395709382.
  • Wetware. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. 2002. ISBN 9781400031177.
  • Cruisers. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. 2004. ISBN 9781400030699.
  • The Informer. Crown Publishing Group. 2010. ISBN 9780307236937.
  • The Constant Heart. Counterpoint. 2012. ISBN 9781619020238.
  • All The Dead Yale Men. Counterpoint. 2013. ISBN 9781582438283.
  • Double Solitaire: A Novel. Arcade Crimewise. 2021. ISBN 9781950691227.
  • The Last Sweet Taste. Arcade Publishing. 2026. ISBN 9781648211812.

Autobiography

  • Brook Trout and the Writing Life. Eno Publishers. 1999. ISBN 9780982077146.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mehren, Elizabeth (June 16, 1994). "Growing Up in Tinseltown Creates Fiction on the Fringe : Author: Craig Nova left Hollywood's dark danger for the lush greenery of Vermont. But L.A. kept gnawing away at him". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hijuelos, Oscar (July 16, 2013). "Author Craig Nova: "The novel is the way we discover what we really believe"". Salon. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Nova, Craig 1945-". encyclopedia.com. April 1, 2026. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "The world according to Nova". Interviewed by Bowman, David. Salon. October 7, 2004. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007.
  5. 1 2 "The Last Sweet Taste". Skyhorse Publishing. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Jay Craven's 'Wetware': New sci-fi film noir tours Vermont". Rutland Herald. June 15, 2019. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  7. 1 2 Fassler, Joe (June 11, 2013). "There's No Such Thing as Good Writing: Craig Nova's Radical Revising Process". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  8. 1 2 "Guggenheim prizes are awarded to 313". The New York Times. New York City, New York, US. April 10, 1977. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  9. 1 2 Annual Report, Fiscal Year 1971 (PDF) (Report). National Endowment For the Arts. 1972. p. 106. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
  10. 1 2 Annual Report 1974-75 (PDF) (Report). New York State Council on the Arts. 1976. p. 73. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
  11. 1 2 McDowell, Edwin (January 6, 1985). "Art endowment gives $2 million to 100 writers". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
  12. 1 2 "Letters group gives prizes to 8 writers". The New York Times. April 15, 1984. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
  13. 1 2 "A Sort of Official Silence". Interviewed by Clement, Raul. Mayday Magazine. January 1, 2010. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  14. 1 2 3 "The Rumpus Interview with Craig Nova". Interviewed by Carman, Sean. The Rumpus. November 20, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  15. ↑ "The Contributors". Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art (10): 181–182. 1986. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
  16. 1 2 Huston, James D. (December 17, 1972). "A novel of debris". The San Francisco Examiner, US. p. 221. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  17. ↑ "The Geek". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky, US. December 21, 1975. p. 65. Retrieved April 21, 2026 – via newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ Irving, John (October 3, 1982). "Desire, Ambition and Father". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  19. ↑ "Vermont author to speak at Northshire Bookstore". Bennington Banner. Bennington, Vermont, US. August 28, 2004. p. 22. Retrieved April 7, 2026 – via newspapers.com.
  20. 1 2 Stasio, Frank; Campbell, Nicole (March 21, 2013). "Author Discusses Masculinity, Romance And Cosmology". WUNC News. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
  21. ↑ "Craig Nova". University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Archived from the original on September 3, 2013.
  22. 1 2 "Drew summer term has varied offerings". Daily Record. Morristown, New Jersey, US. June 1, 1975. p. 20. Retrieved April 7, 2026 – via newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ "UNCG will host a reading..." News and Record. Greensboro, North Carolina, US. April 2, 2006. p. 130. Retrieved April 21, 2026 – via newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "Judges select finalits for 2006 National Book Awards". National Book Foundation. October 11, 2006. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
  25. ↑ Allam, Chantal (December 8, 2022). "Historic Hillsborough home, circa 1770, on sale for under $1M. Here's a look inside". The News & Observer. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
  26. ↑ "Interview with Craig Nova". Washington Independent Review of Books. September 17, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2026.
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