Life

Carlson was born in Logan, Utah

Logan, Utah

-Layout of the City:Logan's city grid originates from its Main and Center Street block, with Main Street running north and south, and Center east and west. Each block north, east, south, or west of the origin accumulates in additions of 100 , though some streets have non-numeric names...

, and grew up in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

. He received a masters degree in English from the University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

. He then taught at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, where he began his first novel.
He became a professor of English at Arizona State University

Arizona State University

Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...

 in 1985, teaching creative writing to undergraduates and graduates, and ultimately becoming director of its Creative Writing Program. Carlson currently teaches at the University of California, Irvine

University of California, Irvine

The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...

.

His short stories originally appeared in The New Yorker

The New Yorker

The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

, Harper's Magazine

Harper's Magazine

Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...

, Esquire

Esquire (magazine)

Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...

, and GQ.
In addition to his fiction, Carlson's has also written for The New York Times Book Review

The New York Times Book Review

The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...

and the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

He wrote of his first "good" story: "I did not understand my story; many times you don’t. It’s not your job to understand or evaluate or edit your work when you first emerge from it. Your duty is to be in love with it, and that defies explanation." (Ron Carlson Writes A Story)

The short story "Keith", from The Hotel Eden, was adapted into a film by Todd Kessler (2008). The independent movie starred, among others, Jesse McCartney

Jesse McCartney

Jesse McCartney is an American singer-songwriter, actor and voice actor. McCartney achieved fame in the late 1990s on the daytime drama All My Children as JR Chandler. He later joined boy band Dream Street, and eventually branched out into a solo musical career...

 and Elisabeth Harnois

Elisabeth Harnois

Elisabeth Rose Harnois is an American television and film actress.-Early life:Harnois was born in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, USA, and raised in Los Angeles. She attended St...

.

Awards

He has received a number of honors and awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

 Fellowship in Fiction, a National Society of Arts and Letters Literature Award, and the 1993 Ploughshares Cohen Prize.

Short stories

• News of the World (1987)
• Plan B for the Middle Class (1992; a New York Times Best Book that year) (an NYT Notable Book) (a Los Angeles Times
  Los Angeles Times
  The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
  
  2002 best book)

Non-fiction

• Ron Carlson Writes a Story (2007), subtitled: "From the first glimmer of an idea to the final sentence."

Anthologies

• Best American Short Stories
• Sudden Fiction
• Best of the West Epoch
• In Our Lovely Deseret: Mormon Fictions
• The North American Review
• The O'Henry Prize
  O. Henry Award
  The O. Henry Award is the only yearly award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American master of the form, O. Henry....
  
   Series
• The Pushcart Prize
  Pushcart Prize
  The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
  
   Anthology
• Norton Anthology of Short Fiction.

External links

• "Ron Carlson Abridged", Elephant Rock Productions
• http://www.teenreads.com/authors/talk-carlson-ron.asp
• http://www.pshares.org/authors/author-detail.cfm?authorID=1860