Chris Crutcher

81
Chris Crutcher bigraphy, stories - American children's writer

Chris Crutcher : biography

17 July 1946 –

Chris Crutcher (born July 17, 1946) is an American novelist and a family therapist. He won the annual Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 recognizing his "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature".

Notelist

Writing

Crutcher’s debut novel was Running Loose in 1983 about a senior in high school who has it all until life throws him for a few loops. Many of his novels concern teenaged athletes who have personal problems. Most of his protagonists are male, teenage athletes, often swimmers, and recurring supporting characters include a wise Asian-American teacher or coach and a caring journalism teacher.

Chris Crutcher’s writing is controversial, and has been frequently challenged and even bannedhttp://librarian.lishost.org/?p=716 by individuals who want to censor his books by removing them from libraries and classrooms. Running Loose and Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories were on the ALA’s top 100 list of most frequently challenged books for 1990-2000.. His books generally feature teens coping with serious problems, including abusive parents, racial and religious prejudice, mental and physical disability, and poverty; these themes are viewed as too mature for children. Other cited reasons for censorship include strong language and depictions of homosexuality.. Despite this controversy, Crutcher’s writing has received many awards.

Crutcher has also written an autobiography called King of the Mild Frontier (2003), an adult novel titled The Deep End (1991), and two collections of short stories, Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories (1991) and Angry Management (2009), some of which further explore characters from his previous novels. One of the stories from Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories, "A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune", was made into a film called Angus.

Awards

  • 1993 – The ALAN Award from The Assembly on Literature for Adolescentsfor Significant Contribution to Adolescent Literature
  • 1998 – The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE/SLATE) Intellectual Freedom Award for advancing the cause of intellectual freedom
  • 2000 – American Library Association Margaret A. Edwards Award for cumulative contribution to children’s literature
  • 2000 – Four of his books appear on Booklist’s Best 100 Books of the 20th Century.
  • 2004 – The Writer magazine’s Writers Who Make a Difference AwardAnonymous. The Writer. Boston: Jan 2004. Vol. 117, Iss. 1; pg. 21
  • 2005 – Catholic Library Association St. Katherine Drexel Award for outstanding contribution to the growth of high school librarianship
  • 2005 – Intellectual Freedom Award from the National Coalition Against CensorshipCole, Pamela Burress. Young Adult Literature in the 21st Century. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. Pg.74. Print.

The ALA has named eight of his books to the annual list of "Best Books for Young Adults".

Biography

Crutcher was born to a World War II bomber pilot and a homemaker on July 17, 1946, in Dayton, Ohio. They later moved to Cascade, Idaho, where Crutcher grew up.

He graduated from Eastern Washington State College (now called Eastern Washington University) with a BA in psychology and sociology. He taught primary and secondary school in California and Washington before beginning his writing career. More detailed information is included in his autobiography, King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography..

Chris Crutcher’s biography Presenting Chris Crutcher (1997, Twayne Publishers) was penned by fellow Spokane born author Terry Davis, another young-adult author.