Eric Goodman

Profile

Eric Goodman, Associate Professor and Director of Creative Writing, is a graduate of both Yale and Stanford University, where he received an M.A. in Creative Writing.

He has published four novels: Child of My Right Hand (Sourcebooks, 2004); In Days of Awe (Alfred A.Knopf, 1991); The First Time I Saw Jenny Hall (William Morrow, 1983); and High on the Energy Bridge (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980). During his notorious Los Angeles years, he wrote episodic television scripts and feature-length screenplays, a practice he continues to this day. Other publications include a handful of short stories and more than 150 non-fiction pieces in national publications including Saveur, GQ, Travel & Leisure, Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Buzz, Glamour, Life, and Self.

Goodman's creative writing workshops, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, reflect his interest and experience in more than one genre. In addition, because he has lived and worked in Southeast Asia, he tries to maintain an international perspective in his approach to literature.

Goodman has won three Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Awards. Other honors include extended residencies at The MacDowell Colony, Ragdale Foundation, and Headlands Center for the Arts. He is married to Professor Susan Morgan, also of the English Department, with whom he has two lovely children. He is a life-long fan of the New York Mets.

Goodman is currently writing two novels: Eaten by a Tiger, which follows a man and his young son after the abrupt disappearance and likely death of their wife and mother; and Identity Thief, a love story set against the racial tensions of 2001 Cincinnati.

Eric Goodman was on Prarie Lights, where he read from his new novel, Child of My Right Hand. You can listen to the show at http://wsui.uiowa.edu/prairie_lights.htm. (Scroll down the page for the interview.)