FAMOUS WRITERS SCHOOL (Counterpoint) and I WAS HOWARD HUGHES (Bloomsbury)

Steven Carter grew up in Gate City, Virginia, and is a graduate of the Center For Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi.  He has published two novels:  I Was Howard Hughes and Famous Writers School, which was a Booksense Notable selection. His short fiction has appeared in more than twenty magazines, including Kenyon Review, Northwest Review, South Carolina Review, Mississippi Review, and Tin House. He teaches English at Georgetown College in Kentucky, where he also edits the Georgetown Review. He lives in Georgetown with his wife.

Praise for I Was Howard Hughes:

“First-novelist Carter hits the scene with a madly inventive mock bio. [His] originality, and above all, deceptive moderation bring to mind Nathanael West’s coolly surreal satires of American obsession.  A darkly revealing, slightly cautionary tale about a barmy billionaire and his batty biographer.  –Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“…offers a lively view of real characters and episodes in Hughes’s life…witty…of all the Hughes books, the most enjoyable.”  –The New York Times

“[An] entertaining sendup of the parasitic relationship between biographer and subject.”  –Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Carter takes an already fascinating historical character and adds a potent dose of modern wit.”  –Washington Post

“[A] rollicking, satiric, frequently nasty portrayal of life writers and life writing….I could not stop laughing at Carter’s clever scenes, could not stop turning the pages.  For a couple of decades, my favorite novel with a biographer as protagonist has been Dubin’s Lives by Bernard Malamud.  Now there is a tie for first place on my list.”  –Oregonian

Praise for Famous Writers School:

“This is a laugh-out-loud celebration of good storytelling and a satire of scribblers who wear their New Yorker rejection letters on their sleeves.”  –Library Journal

“The novel’s rewards are…considerable.”  –Publisher’s Weekly

“A clever satire.”  –The New York Times Book Review

“A funny mystery.”  –USA Today

“Carter moves deftly between four voices throughout the book, and rarely goes more than a page or two without invoking a chuckle.  That might not sound like extraordinary praise, but it’s a hell of a lot harder than it sounds.”  –The Portland Mercury

“With characters like these it would be easy for an author to come off as arrogant as his own main character, but Carter…shows all concerned plenty of affection.”  –Chicago Reader