Chiappone, Richard

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Chiappone, Richard

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Office—Alaska Quarterly Review, University of Alaska, Anchorage, 3211 Providence Dr., Anchorage, AK 99508. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Alaska, Anchorage, senior affiliate editor of Alaska Quarterly Review and adjunct professor at Kachemak Bay campus.

WRITINGS:

Water of an Undetermined Depth (stories), Stackpole Books (Mechanicsburg, PA), 2002.

Contributor to anthology City Fishing, Stackpole Books (Mechanicsburg, PA), 2002. Contributor to periodicals, including Playboy, Alaska, Missouri Review, ZYZZYVA, and Gray's Sporting Journal.

ADAPTATIONS: The short story "Raccoon" was adapted as a short film.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A feature-length screenplay.

SIDELIGHTS: Richard Chiappone's Water of an Undetermined Depth is a collection of stories in which fishing sometimes plays a part, as in "The Chubs," about a student who goes fishing with his factory-worker father. Most of the characters in the fourteen stories are men and include a plumber, Vietnam soldier, and retiree, the last who becomes stranded in a remote village while on a tropical vacation in "A Girl, the Jungle, Monkeys." The title story is a short tale about a father who is obsessed by the possibility of injury or death by accident, generated by his memories of the death of a childhood friend, when his daughter asks permission to go swimming at a local quarry with friends. Library Journal contributor Ellen R. Cohen called the stories "stark but well told." A Publishers Weekly reviewer said that "Chiappone's ironic humor differentiates this collection, and his strong voice bodes well for subsequent efforts."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2002, John Rowen, review of City Fishing, p. 793.

Library Journal, April 1, 2002, Nathan Ward, review of City Fishing, p. 117; February 1, 2003, Ellen R. Cohen, review of Water of an Undetermined Depth, p. 120.

Publishers Weekly, December 17, 2001, review of City Fishing, p. 79; January 6, 2003, review of Water of an Undetermined Depth, p. 39.