My Biosphere
EARLY YEARS
I've been writing hard since around 1987. My first novel, The Onion Scribe, was discovered by author Bret Easton Ellis and edited by him, garnering me my first literary agent at ICM in 1996. That book was my sardonic Salinger-wanna-be attempt at making sense of my southwestern Virginian upbringing; it was written in L.A. in six weeks. It landed on some elite editors' desks and gained me ingress to many star-filled Manhattan parties but was not published.
I was raised on three farms in Bedford, Virginia, prepped at Virginia Episcopal School (V.E.S.) in Lynchburg, and attended boarding school at King's College in Taunton, Somerset, England on an English Speaking Union Fellowship. At V.E.S. I won the English and French Awards, as well as the Chaplain's Prize.
My undergraduate was the bittersweet but formative Davidson College in North Carolina, where I began to write stories of my past. My grandmother, Mary Jane Harris Lerner, had a farm on the James River, and my first short story, "Respect for the House and Sleeping", was published about her in The Crescent Review in 1995. I received a B.A. in English from Davidson and won the fiction award my junior year (A poet won first place when the award mixed fiction and poetry. I technically won second, but a poet judged and naturally gave first prize to a poet). I also won the non-fiction award my senior year.
GRAD SCHOOL
I was accepted into the M.F.A. program at the University of Houston and the M.A. program at Middlebury College in Vermont at the Bread Loaf School of English (see photo above). My mentors at Houston were playwright Edward Albee, who produced my first play; novelist Rosellen Brown; poet Richard Howard; poet Adam Zagajewski. I graduated with the M.F.A. in May 1994 and the M.A. in August 1995. Years later, almost a decade, I would return to Middlebury where I received my third master's degree, the M.Litt. in African-American Studies. The Middlebury program has many campuses, and I spent four summers in Vermont, three in Santa Fe, one in Alaska and one at Lincoln College, Oxford University. Check out the Bread Loaf School of English at BREAD LOAF. These were some of the sweetest, poetic and idyllic summers of my life.
TEACHING
As for teaching, I have done stints at various places. I taught two years of Freshman Comp and Rhetoric and Sophomore Intro to Drama at the University of Houston; five years of Freshman Comp and Lit at Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York; two years of Brit and American Lit at Greens Farms Academy in Westport, Connecticut; and most recently at SUNY-Purchase in Purchase, New York. At SUNY-Purchase, I replaced two professors on sabbatical and was there from 2006-2009. This was my favorite academic environment because I received an office and benefits and was allowed to teach creative writing, poetic technique, fiction and screenwriting. I was given amazing autonomy and taugh over forty books that I loved.
MODELING, MUSIC, FILM
I would say that I've had a varied life across all the arts. In addition to being represented for writing by ICM for four years and POM for eight, I have done some print modeling in NYC and am represented by Charlie Winfield at FFT (FFT). I grew up as a child actor performing in plays and have acted in short films.
I've also sung and played harmonicas in The Last Minute, which plays a lot at The Beach House in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. I learned to play the trumpet from famous jazz trombonist, David Gibson (David Gibson). I played and sang over a decade at Sundown Saloon in Greenwich, Connecticut, with Artie Tobia (Artie Tobia) and Mark Barden. I also sat in with them often at Turtle Bay on Second Avenue in Manhattan.
I was head of the selection committee at the Greenwich Film Festival for two years and have directed the short film, The Development, starring Paul Bomba, Sarah Desage, Matt Del Negro and Colman Andrews with cinematography by two-time Emmy winner, Dwight Brugo.
PUBLISHING
I have various publications in Greenwich Magazine, Saveur, ARTnews, The Crescent Review, The Tusculum Review, Gulf Coast and many others. My first book of short stories, The Reclusives, will be published in June 2011. Stay tuned.
Photo below: My brothers, Ben (middle) and Farrar (right). I'm on the left.
I've been writing hard since around 1987. My first novel, The Onion Scribe, was discovered by author Bret Easton Ellis and edited by him, garnering me my first literary agent at ICM in 1996. That book was my sardonic Salinger-wanna-be attempt at making sense of my southwestern Virginian upbringing; it was written in L.A. in six weeks. It landed on some elite editors' desks and gained me ingress to many star-filled Manhattan parties but was not published.
I was raised on three farms in Bedford, Virginia, prepped at Virginia Episcopal School (V.E.S.) in Lynchburg, and attended boarding school at King's College in Taunton, Somerset, England on an English Speaking Union Fellowship. At V.E.S. I won the English and French Awards, as well as the Chaplain's Prize.
My undergraduate was the bittersweet but formative Davidson College in North Carolina, where I began to write stories of my past. My grandmother, Mary Jane Harris Lerner, had a farm on the James River, and my first short story, "Respect for the House and Sleeping", was published about her in The Crescent Review in 1995. I received a B.A. in English from Davidson and won the fiction award my junior year (A poet won first place when the award mixed fiction and poetry. I technically won second, but a poet judged and naturally gave first prize to a poet). I also won the non-fiction award my senior year.
GRAD SCHOOL
I was accepted into the M.F.A. program at the University of Houston and the M.A. program at Middlebury College in Vermont at the Bread Loaf School of English (see photo above). My mentors at Houston were playwright Edward Albee, who produced my first play; novelist Rosellen Brown; poet Richard Howard; poet Adam Zagajewski. I graduated with the M.F.A. in May 1994 and the M.A. in August 1995. Years later, almost a decade, I would return to Middlebury where I received my third master's degree, the M.Litt. in African-American Studies. The Middlebury program has many campuses, and I spent four summers in Vermont, three in Santa Fe, one in Alaska and one at Lincoln College, Oxford University. Check out the Bread Loaf School of English at BREAD LOAF. These were some of the sweetest, poetic and idyllic summers of my life.
TEACHING
As for teaching, I have done stints at various places. I taught two years of Freshman Comp and Rhetoric and Sophomore Intro to Drama at the University of Houston; five years of Freshman Comp and Lit at Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York; two years of Brit and American Lit at Greens Farms Academy in Westport, Connecticut; and most recently at SUNY-Purchase in Purchase, New York. At SUNY-Purchase, I replaced two professors on sabbatical and was there from 2006-2009. This was my favorite academic environment because I received an office and benefits and was allowed to teach creative writing, poetic technique, fiction and screenwriting. I was given amazing autonomy and taugh over forty books that I loved.
MODELING, MUSIC, FILM
I would say that I've had a varied life across all the arts. In addition to being represented for writing by ICM for four years and POM for eight, I have done some print modeling in NYC and am represented by Charlie Winfield at FFT (FFT). I grew up as a child actor performing in plays and have acted in short films.
I've also sung and played harmonicas in The Last Minute, which plays a lot at The Beach House in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. I learned to play the trumpet from famous jazz trombonist, David Gibson (David Gibson). I played and sang over a decade at Sundown Saloon in Greenwich, Connecticut, with Artie Tobia (Artie Tobia) and Mark Barden. I also sat in with them often at Turtle Bay on Second Avenue in Manhattan.
I was head of the selection committee at the Greenwich Film Festival for two years and have directed the short film, The Development, starring Paul Bomba, Sarah Desage, Matt Del Negro and Colman Andrews with cinematography by two-time Emmy winner, Dwight Brugo.
PUBLISHING
I have various publications in Greenwich Magazine, Saveur, ARTnews, The Crescent Review, The Tusculum Review, Gulf Coast and many others. My first book of short stories, The Reclusives, will be published in June 2011. Stay tuned.
Photo below: My brothers, Ben (middle) and Farrar (right). I'm on the left.
He kept using Lester's mouth to express himself, floating into Spanish at times and at some point he realized that he was crying and laying the doll on his desk, just crying about life itself and what a waste it felt like sometimes, but then there would be moments like this where you were just running with strangers and happy and not thinking about anything at all, and it made you feel better. Excerpt from "I Am Not a Landscaper" in The Reclusives
