Peter Cameron (born November 29, 1959) is an American novelist and short-story writer.[1] Several of his works have been adapted into films.[2][3][4]
Peter Cameron | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 29, 1959 Pompton Plains, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Hamilton College |
Life and career
Cameron was born and raised in the Pompton Plains section of Pequannock Township, New Jersey.[5] He graduated in English literature in 1982 from Hamilton College. Cameron lived in Pompton Plains, London, and, later, New York City.[6]
In 1983, he published his first short story (Memorial Day) in The New Yorker; he then continued to contribute to the magazine in the following years.[7] His first book was a collection of short stories entitled One Way or Another, published by Harper & Row in 1986. His debut novel Leap Year was published by Harper & Row in 1990. His second novel, The Weekend,[8] was edited in 1994 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and adapted as the Brian Skeet film of the same name released in November 2000.[2] In 1997, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published Cameron's next novel, Andorra,[9] and The City of Your Final Destination in 2002[10] (which in 2009 was adapted into a film of the same name directed by James Ivory).[3] In October 2007, Cameron's young adult novel Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You was published,[11][1] and in October 2012 it was adapted into a film of the same name.[4] In March 2012, he published Coral Glynn.[12] His last novel, What Happens at Night, was published by Catapult in August 2020.[13]
In addition to his work as a writer, he has taught at Columbia, Yale and Sarah Lawrence College. Between 1990 and 1998, he worked for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.[14] In 2010, he founded Wallflower Press, whose name had to change in January 2014 to Shrinking Violet Press due to a rights conflict with Columbia University.[15][16]
Influences
Cameron was influenced by authors such as Rose Macaulay, Barbara Pym and Margaret Drabble,[17] borrowing their aptitude for probing individual lives.
List of works
Novels
- Leap Year (1990)
- The Weekend (1994)
- Andorra (1997)
- The City of Your Final Destination (2002)
- Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (2007)
- Coral Glynn (2012)
- What Happens at Night (2020)
Collections
- One Way or Another (1986)
- Far-flung (1991)
- The Half You Don't Know (1997)