Frederick Barthelme

Fredrick Barthelme (born October 10, 1943) is an American novelist and short story writer, well known as one of the seminal writers of minimalist fiction. Alongside his personal publishing history, his position as Director of The Center For Writers at The University of Southern Mississippi and Editor of the nationally prominent literary journal Mississippi Review (1977 - 2010) have placed him at the forefront of the contemporary American literary scene. He is currently the editor of New World Writing (formerly Blip Magazine)

Barthelme was born in Houston, Texas. His father, Donald Barthelme, Sr., was a well-known and highly active Modernist architect in the city. The atmosphere of intellectual and aesthetic vigor encouraged by their father, pervasive in Barthelme family life, is described in Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss, a memoir co-written by Frederick and his brother, Steven. His other brothers, Donald and Peter, emerged from the creative household to become authors as well. Frederick pursued his widely-ranging talents in multiple creative fields, including painting and music: he was a founding member of the avant-garde psychedelic rock band The Red Krayola. He eventually chose to focus on fiction writing: receiving his M.A. in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with John Barth.

Barthelme's works are known for their focus on the landscape of the New South. Along with his reputation as a minimalist (similar to Raymond Carver, Ann Beattie, Amy Hempel, and Mary Robison), Barthelme's work has also been described by terms such as "dirty realism" and "Kmart realism". He published his first short story in The New Yorker, and has claimed that a rotisserie chicken helped him understand that he needed to write about ordinary people. He has moved away from the postmodern stylings of his older brother, Donald Barthelme, though his brother's influence can be seen in his earliest works, Rangoon and War and War.

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