Steve Katz (writer)

Steve Katz (May 14, 1935 – August 4, 2019) was an American writer. He is considered an early post-modern or avant-garde writer for works such as The Exagggerations of Peter Prince (1968), and Saw (1972). His collection of stories, Creamy & Delicious (1970), was mentioned in Larry McCaffery's list of the 100 greatest books of the 20th century where it was named "The most extreme and perfectly executed fictional work to emerge from the Pop Art scene of the late 60s."[1]

For other, similarly-named writers, see Steve Katz.

Biography

Steve Katz was born in the Bronx, New York City on May 14, 1935. He received his bachelor's degree at Cornell University and his master's degree at the University of Oregon. He has taught at the University of Maryland Overseas (Italy), Cornell University, the University of Iowa,[2] Brooklyn College, Queens College, City University of New York, and Notre Dame University. In 1978 he became the director of the creative writing program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Katz has also worked as a miner, a dairy farmer, and a teacher of T'ai chi ch'uan. He received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1976 and 1981.[3] In 2008, Steve Katz was a featured reader at the &NOW Festival at Chapman University.[4]

Katz's innovative fiction was often praised by reviewers. For example, a Newsday review of Stolen Stories by John Gabree called the book "short fiction worthy of attention ... wild tall tales scatted in blustery poetry and prose."[5] Writing in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Christopher Pasles wrote

Steve Katz strikes an amiable balance between the demands of fantasy and those of realism. He does this by treating fiction as a game ... The result is a superb tour de force that lets the reader wander into the writer's workshop to watch the process of making fiction.[6]

Reviewing Moving Parts in the Baltimore Sun, Michael Scott Cain wrote:

Steve Katz's novel is a beauty. Katz, as both author and character in the book, dominates it as thoroughly as Peter Falk dominates "Colombo." He's everywhere, so that "Moving Parts" has as its main focus the writing of a book ... Through it all, his invention never flags, the manic energy never slows, and the humor never lets up. Steve Katz, in this book, proves himself an American original.[7]

Susan Monsky, reviewing Florry of Washington Heights in The Boston Globe, wrote

Steve Katz gives us slices of life in New York City's Washington Heights neighborhood during the late 1940s ... Katz fleshes out tiny episodes in the lives of his adolescent boys with warm precision and understated comedy. "West Side Story," move over![8]

In a 1968 review of The Exagggerations of Peter Prince in The Daily Oklahoman, Duane Meyers wrote:

In truth, "The Exagggerations of Peter Prince" is not a novel at all. To my mind, it's more like a virtuoso jazz performance. You experience it as Katz invents it, as he talks to you and his protagonist, as he sings the blues about his problems with transition, continuity and character ... I suspect many who start reading it may think of it as pornographic trivia or as needlessly shocking and obscure, but I'm convinced it's the kind of work the open-minded reader will be able to pick up and tune in on many years from now.[9]

Bibliography

Footnotes
  1. The 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English Language Books of Fiction Archived 2010-03-26 at the Wayback Machine, American Book Review, September/October 1999, Volume 20, Issue 6.
  2. "Author Katz: The Visual Element". Cedar Rapids Gazette. October 12, 1969. p. B1. Retrieved October 8, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Steve Katz Biography - Critical Studies:, Steve Katz comments:
  4. "Featured Events". &Now Festival 2008. &Now Festival. Archived from the original on 8 December 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  5. "New and Notable". Newsday. October 18, 1984. p. 66. Retrieved October 15, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Six From the Fiction Collective". The Los Angeles Times. October 9, 1977. p. 4 Book Review. Retrieved October 15, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Three from the farther edges of books on American fiction". The Baltimore Sun. July 3, 1977. p. D5. Retrieved October 8, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Short Takes". The Boston Globe. September 6, 1987. p. A10. Retrieved October 15, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Author Praised in Experimental Fiction Efforts". The Daily Oklahoman. September 22, 1968. p. 24. Retrieved October 15, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.