Born September 29: Douglas A. Martin

Born in Virginia, raised in Georgia, Douglas A. Martin moved to New York at 25 to be a performing poet and playwright. He has published three volumes of poetry, including In the Time of Assignments from Soft Skull; a collection of short fiction, They Change the Subject [Kindle]; a triptych of novellas (about Balthus, Hart Crane, and Francis Bacon) Your Body Figured; and three impressive novels: Outline of My Lover (chosen by Colm Tóibín in the TLS as an International Book of the Year); a rescue of gay literary history, Branwell: A Novel of the Bronte Brother; and 2009's Once You Go Back [Kindle](named by uber-reader Richard Labonte as one of his favorites). Widely praised by Dennis Cooper, Dale Peck, Wayne Koestenbaum, and many others, Martin's books are must reading. Admirers of his inventive and moving work will not be surprised to learn that in leading creative writing classes he cross-pollinates disciplines, telling his students, "...that I am going to teach in metaphors, that I am going to be elliptical, that I am going to talk about film technique and contemporary art as much as I talk about sentences."