2009 Presenters
Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas received his BA from Hunter College and his M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College. Man Gone Down, his first novel, won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was one of The New York Times Book Review’s Ten Best Books of the Year in 2007. He teaches at Hunter College and lives in Brooklyn.
Reviews of Man Gone Down:
"A ravishing blues for the soul's unending loneliness."--Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review) -- Booklist
"The narrator's hard-bitten realism and Thomas's blues-dirge-y storytelling instincts keep the narrative thrumming."--Jonathan Durbin, People, People
"[A] jazzy, sinewy debut . . . Thomas's urgent, quicksilver prose makes even the darkest moments of this novel shine."--Cathleen Medwick, O, the Oprah Magazine -- O, the Oprah Magazine
"Powerful and moving . . . An impressive success . . . [Thomas] knows how the odds are stacked in America. He knows the unlikelihood of successful black fatherhood. He knows that things are set up to keep the Other poor and the poor in their place. More than anything else, he knows how little but also--fortunately--how much it can take to bring a man down." --Kaiama L. Glover, The New York Times Book Review
