Russell Banks

The work of award-winning author Russell Banks is shaped by his working-class New England upbringing. His works include the novels The Darling, Cloudsplitter, Continental Drift, The Rule of Jamaica, and Hamilton Stark, among others, as well as five collections of short stories. Banks’ best-selling novels Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter were adapted into successful feature films, winning an Academy Award and a Cannes Film Festival award, respectively.

Banks’ work explores the causes and effects of the terrible things “normal” men can and will do. His stories explore intense tragedy and sorrow, but his focused empathy and compassionate sense of humor help keep the reader afloat.

A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Russell Banks has received numerous awards and prizes for his work, including the John Dos Passos Award and the Ingram Merrill Award. He has contributed poems, stories, and essays to The Boston Globe Magazine, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s, and a number of other venues. He lives in upstate New York and is currently working on a screenplay of his novel Rule of the Bone.