List of University of Michigan Arts Alumni - Belles Lettres

Belles Lettres

• Daniel Aaron (BA 1933) “…may be the most eminent living critic of American literature and culture.” He is the author of many articles and books, including, Men of Good Hope: A Story of American Progressives, The Unwritten War: Writers of the Civil War and, with Richard Hofstadter and William Miller, The Structure of American History, all books that have appeared in numerous editions.
• Uwem Akpan (M.F.A. 2007), Jesuit priest and Nigerian author. Akpan's 2008 book "Say You're One of Them" contains fictional accounts of people seeking normality in the face of often extreme circumstances. "Say You're One of Them" won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and the PEN/Beyond Margins Award.
• Max Apple, (BA 1963). Author of: The Oranging of America (1976, short stories), Zip: A Novel of the Left and the Right (1978, novel), Three Stories (1983, short stories), Free Agents (1984, novel), The Propheteers: A Novel (1987, novel), Roommates: My Grandfather's Story (1994, biography, of Apple's grandfather)
• Robert Arthur, Jr., (BA 1930), writer, novelist, editor. Created the juvenile "The Three Investigators" mystery series and worked on the anthology TV series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".
• Erik Barmack, (B.A. 1995), born 1973, author of the novel, "The Virgin" and the non-fiction book, "Why Fantasy Football Matters"
• Sven Birkerts, (A.B. 1973), Essayist and author of The Gutenberg Elegies
• Michael Byers (MFA) is an American writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. (MFA 1988) (born January 15, 1954) is a Filipino writer.
• Mary Gaitskill, Bad Behavior (1988), Two Girls, Fat and Thin (1991), Because They Wanted To (1997) (stories), Veronica (2005).
• Naomi Gilpatrick (B.A.) Miss Gilpatrick was drama critic of the campus newspaper and won the university's top literature award for "The Broken Pitcher," a complicated love story that Dial Press published as a novel in 1945. The New York Times called "The Broken Pitcher" an "odd little novel in which everyone is shattered by fond emotions." The novel's heroine is a college girl who is in love with her late father, then meets and falls in love with her stepfather.
• Josh Greenfeld, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and author of A Child Called Noah trilogy.
• Judith Guest, (B.A. 1959), wrote Ordinary People, which was later turned into an Academy Award winning film.
• Aaron Hamburger (B.A. 1995) (born 1973) is an American writer best known for his short story collection The View from Stalin's Head (2004) and novel Faith for Beginners (2005). The View from Stalin's Head was awarded the Rome Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy in Rome. His next book, Faith for Beginners, is a novel about a dysfunctional family vacation in Jerusalem, and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.
• Gabrielle Hamilton (MFA) owner/manager of Prune restaurant in Manhattan, and author of Blood Bones and Butter. Recipient of the James Beard award for best chef.
• Robert Hayden, (MA 1944), Professor of Poetry 1969-1980.
• Matthew Hittinger (M.F.A. 2004) he is the author of the poetry collection Skin Shift (2012), and the chapbooks Pear Slip (2007) winner of the Spire Press 2006 Chapbook Award.
• James Avery Hopwood, (AB 1905), playwright, established the U-M Hopwood Awards (won by Arthur Miller and Lawrence Kasdan, q.v.). One of the premier playwrights of the jazz age and had, at one time, 4 plays running simultaneously on Broadway.
• Randa Jarrar (born 1978 in Chicago) is a Palestinian-American novelist, short story writer, and translator.
• Laura Kasischke, (M.F.A. 1987) author, In a Perfect World ;Suspicious River ; White Bird in a Blizzard ; The Life Before Her Eyes ; Boy Heaven ;Be Mine ;Feathered
• Jane Kenyon, (B.A 1970, M.A. 1972), poet and wife of former Michigan Professor Donald Hall, U.S. Poet Laureate.
• Elizabeth Kostova, (M.F.A. 2004), writer. Her first novel, The Historian, was published in 2005, and has become a best-seller.
• Janet Malcolm, 1955, was a writer for The New Yorker and wrote In the Freud Archives.
• Sebastian Matthews (MFA) is an American poet, and writer.
• Thomas McGuane (MDNG), novelist
• Nami Mun is a Korean American novelist and short story writer.
• Paula McLain (MFA) is the author of the novel Ticket to Ride, a memoir titled Like Family, two collections of poetry, as well as her newest release, The Paris Wife, which is a historical fiction novel.
• Patrick O'Keeffe, (MFA), winner of the Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing for Above the Bar. (administered by the Hopwood Program) and instructor in the University of Michigan's Sweetland Writing Center has won the 2006 Story Prize, the richest U.S. prize for short fiction, for The Hill Road, a collection of four novellas set in a fictional Irish farming village. O'Keeffe's writing has been compared to the Irish short-story and novel writer William Trevor. Mr. O'Keeffe received the 2006 Whiting Writers Award at a ceremony October 25 at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City
• Frank O’Hara, (M.A. 1951). Author of: A City Winter and Other Poems,Oranges: 12 pastorals, Second Avenue, Odes, Lunch Poems. Love Poems.
• Susan Olasky, (AB 1975), author.
• Susan Orlean, (AB 1976), wrote The Orchid Thief. The book was made into the movie Adaptation.
• Marge Piercy, (AB 1957), wrote Braided Lives and Fly Away Home. Hopwood Program award winner.
• Matthew Rohrer (BA) American poet and Hopwood Award winner.
• Ari Roth playwright and Artistid Director of Theater J
• Ruth L. Schwartz (MFA 14985) is an American poet.
• Allen Seager, author, Amos Berry and A Frieze of Girls
• John Sinclair (B.A. 1964) (born October 2, 1941 in Flint, Michigan, United States) is an American poet from Detroit, one-time manager of the band MC5
• Betty Smith, (1921–22, 1927, 1931), author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• James Tobin, (1978, MA 1979, PhD 1986), wrote To Conquer the Air, Ernie Pyle's War, and Great Projects.
• Nancy Willard(BA, Ph.D).In 1982, she received the Newbery Medal for A Visit to William Blake's Inn.
• Edmund White, (AB 1962), wrote for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
• Stewart Edward White,(Ph.D., 1895; M.A., 1903). Author