Tim O'Brien (author)
| Tim O'Brien | |
|---|---|
O'Brien at the 2012 Texas Book Festival.
|
|
| Born | William Timothy O'Brien October 1, 1946 Austin, Minnesota, United States |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer, teacher |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Macalester College |
| Genre | Memoirs, war stories |
| Notable works | Going After Cacciato, The Things They Carried, If I Die in a Combat Zone |
| Years active | 1973–present |
| Spouse | Meredith Baker |
| Children | Timmy O'Brien Tad O'Brien |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |
 United States of America
|
| Service/branch |
 United States Army
|
| Years of service | 1968–1970 |
| Rank |
 Sergeant
|
| Unit | 3rd Platoon, Company A, 5th Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment 198th Infantry Brigade |
| Battles/wars | Vietnam War |
| Awards |
 Purple Heart
|
William Timothy "Tim" O'Brien (born October 1, 1946) is an American novelist best known for his work of fiction, The Things They Carried (1990), a critically acclaimed collection of semi-autobiographical, interrelated short stories inspired by O'Brien's experiences in the Vietnam War. In addition, he is known for his war novel, Going After Cacciato (1978), also written about wartime Vietnam.
O'Brien has held the endowed chair at the MFA program of Texas State University–San Marcos every other year since the 2003-2004 year (i.e. 2003-2004, 2005-2006, 2007-2008, 2009–2010, and 2011-2012).
O'Brien was born in Austin, Minnesota. When he was seven, his family, including a younger sister and brother, moved to Worthington, also in southern Minnesota. Worthington had a large influence on O’Brien’s imagination and early development as an author. The town is located on Lake Okabena in the western portion of the state and serves as the setting for some of his stories, especially those in the novel The Things They Carried.
O'Brien earned his BA in Political Science from Macalester College, where he was student body president, in 1968. That same year he was drafted into the United States Army and was sent to Vietnam, where he served from 1969 to 1970 in 3rd Platoon, Company A, 5th Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment. He served in the division that contained a unit involved in the infamous My Lai Massacre. O'Brien has said that when his unit got to the area around My Lai (referred to as "Pinkville" by the U.S. forces), "we all wondered why the place was so hostile. We did not know there had been a massacre there a year earlier. The news about that only came out later, while we were there, and then we knew."
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