'An ancient and honorable act'

 

“Storytelling is an ancient andhonorable act. An essential role to play in the community or tribe. It's onethat I embrace wholeheartedly and have been fortunate enough to be rewardedfor.” –  Russell Banks

 

Born in Massachusetts on this datein 1940, Banks wrote 20 books of fiction and poetry.  He was best known for his accounts ofdomestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary, often-marginalizedcharacters, frequently drawing from his own childhood experiences growing upin poverty.

 

Winner of the John Dos Passos Awardfor Creative Writing, he also earned numerous international awards and had hiswork translated into 20 different languages.  Two of his books– The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction – notonly became international best-sellers but were made into successful featurefilms.

 

A member of the InternationalParliament of Writers and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he wrote rightup until his death early in 2023, publishing a novel The Magic Kingdomin 2022.  A posthumous collection of hisshort stories, American Spirits, was published in 2024.

Also a winner of the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Award for Excellence in Fiction,Banks noted, “There are people like me who want to be writers simply because they loveto write.  My life has been shaped by mywriting,”