Robley Wilson has been a Guggenheim Fellow in Fiction and a Nicholl Fellow in Screenwriting. His first novel, The Victim's Daughter, was published in 1991 by Simon & Schuster; his second, Splendid Omens, was published in 2004 by St. Martin's press. A third novel, The World Still Melting, appeared in 2005, also from St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne.
His five short story collections are: The Pleasures of Manhood (1977); Living Alone, (1978); Dancing for Men (1983, winner of the 1982 Drue Heinz Literature Prize), Terrible Kisses, (1989, a New York Times Notable Book), and The Book of Lost Fathers (2001).
Wilson's first book of poems, Kingdoms of the Ordinary, was the 1986 Agnes Lynch Starrett prizewinner, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in the fall of 1987; his second, A Pleasure Tree, also from Pittsburgh, won the Society of Midland Authors Poetry Prize for 1990; his most recent collection, Everything Paid For, was published by the University Press of Florida in 1999. A poetry chapbook, A Walk Through the Human Heart, appeared in 1996 from Helicon Nine editions.
Wilson taught creative writing at the University of Northern Iowa from 1963 to 1996, and from 1969 to 2000 was editor of The North American Review, a university-owned magazine which twice won the National Magazine Award for Fiction administered by the American Society of Magazine Editors.
He has been visiting writer at Beloit College, the University of Iowa, Northwestern University, Pitzer College, and the University of Central Florida, and was a 1983-84 Guggenheim Fellow in fiction.
A short film, based on his short story "Terrible Kisses," features Saffron Burrows and Jack Davenport. It was screened in 2004 at the Rushes Short Film Festival in London's Soho district and has been seen on Sky television in the U.K. His screenplay Paradise was a semi-finalist in the 2005 Screenwriting Expo competition. A full-length film inspired by "Terrible Kisses"--tentatively entitled Heartless--is currently in development.
Wilson and his wife, fiction writer Susan Hubbard (The Society of S [2007] and The Year of Disappearances [2008]) co-edited 100% Pure Florida Fiction, a short-story anthology of Florida stories written since 1985 (University Press of Florida, 2000). The two divide their time between Orlando and Cape Canaveral, Florida and share their lives with six unruly cats: Buddy, Bartleby, Isis, Olivia, Gidget, and Max.
BLUE GARAGE
Blue Garage Co. is an umbrella corporation for the literary work of Wilson and his wife, Susan Hubbard. Its website, www.bluegarageco.com is under construction.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY
The World Still Melting [novel]. A Thomas Dunne Book, St. Martin's Press, 2005. 265p.
Splendid Omens [novel]. A Thomas Dunne Book, St. Martin's Press, 2004. 274p.
The Book of Lost Fathers [stories]. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2001. 226p.
100% Pure Florida Fiction. Ed. with Susan Hubbard. University Press of Florida. 2000. 203p. (Cloth & paper)
Everything Paid For [poems]. University Press of Florida. 1999. 64p.
A Walk Through the Human Heart [poems]. Kansas City MO, Helicon Nine "Feuiletts" Series. 1995. 12p.
The Victim's Daughter [novel]. New York NY, Simon and Schuster. 1991. 222p. [o.p.]
(A Book-of-the-Month Club Alternate Selection)
---------- London, U.K., Hamish Hamilton, 1992. 222p.
---------- London, U.K., Bantam U.K. [paper], 1993. 217p.
A Pleasure Tree [poems]. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990. 75p. [o.p.]
(1990 Society of Midland Authors Poetry Prize)
Terrible Kisses [stories]. New York NY, Simon & Schuster, 1989. 224p. [o.p.]
---------- London, U.K., Hamish Hamilton, 1989. 224p.
---------- [French language] Tr. Natalie Zimmermann. Paris, Editions Julliard [paper], 1994. 342p.
---------- London, U.K., Bantam New Fiction [paper], 1991. 219p.
Kingdoms of the Ordinary [poems]. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1987. 89p.[o.p.]
(Winner, 1986 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize)
Dancing for Men [stories]. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1983. 154p. [o.p.]
(Winner, 1982 Drue Heinz Literature Prize)
---------- New York NY, The Ecco Press, 1985. 153p.[paper]
Living Alone [stories]. Canton NY, Fiction International, 1978. 126p.
The Pleasures of Manhood [stories]. University of Illinois Press, 1977. 170p. [o.p.]
Returning to the Body [poems]. LaCrosse WI, Juniper Press, 1977. 16p.
