John Jeremiah Sullivan

Sullivan at the National Book Critics Circle Awards, March 2012

John Jeremiah Sullivan (born 1974) is an American writer and editor. He is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine, and southern editor of The Paris Review.

Biography

Sullivan was born in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Mike Sullivan, was sportswriter. He earned his degree in 1997 from The University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee.

His first book, Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter's Son, was published in 2004. It is part personal reminiscence, part elegy for his father, and part investigation into the history and culture of the thoroughbred racehorse.

His second book, Pulphead: Essays (2011),^[1] is an anthology of fourteen previously published magazine articles, with most of them "in substantially different form"^[2] for the book.

Sullivan's essay "Mister Lytle: An Essay", originally published in The Paris Review, won a number of awards and was anthologized in Pulphead. Sullivan recounts how he lived with Andrew Nelson Lytle, when Lytle was in his 90s, helping him with house chores and learning some wisdom about writing and life.

Awards

• 2003 Eclipse Award, Blood Horses
• 2003 National Magazine Award, Feature Writing
• 2004 Whiting Award, Nonfiction
• 2011 National Magazine Award, Essays and Criticism, "Mister Lytle. An Essay" (The Paris Review)
• 2011 Pushcart Prize, Pushcart XXXV, "Mister Lytle. An Essay" (The Paris Review)
• 2015 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (Non-Fiction) valued at $150,000^[3]

Bibliography

Books

• Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter's Son, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004.
• Pulphead: Essays, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011.

Select articles

GQ

• "Too Much Information", on David Foster Wallace
• "The Last Wailer", on Bunny Wailer
• "Back in the Day", on Michael Jackson
• "The Final Comeback of Axl Rose", on Axl Rose
• "Upon This Rock", on a visit to a Christian rock festival
• "Good-Bye to All That", on a visit to the Gulf Coast, post-Hurricane Katrina
• "He Shall Be Levi", on a visit to Alaska, to meet Levi Johnston
• "American Grotesque". on the Tea Party movement
• "Violence of the Lambs". on the coming war between animals and humans
• "Peyton's Place". on living in the house used for the filming of One Tree Hill

Harper's Magazine

• "Horseman, Pass By: Glory, grief, and the race for the Triple Crown"
• "A Rawness of Seeing: Denis Johnson writes the big novel"
• "Unknown Bards: The blues becomes transparent about itself"

New York Magazine

• "Art-Shaped Box", on Nirvana
• "Dear Heather', on Leonard Cohen
• "My Front Pages", on Bob Dylan

New York Times Magazine

• "You Blow My Mind. Hey, Mickey!", on Disney World
• "My Debt to Ireland" on Ireland's Future
• "How William Faulkner Tackled Race — and Freed the South From Itself" on William Faulkner
• "Venus and Serena Against the World" on Venus Williams and Serena Williams
• "Where is Cuba Going?", on Cuba's future
• "The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie", about blues singers Geeshie Wiley and Elvie Thomas

The Paris Review

• "Mister Lytle", an essay
• "Unnamed Caves", on American cave art

References

1. "Pulp Fever", Daniel Riley, GQ, November 3, 2011.
2. Pulphead, Copyright page, front matter.
3. "Prize Citation for John Jeremiah Sullivan". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 24, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.

External links

• Profile at The Whiting Foundation