LIGON, Samuel

PERSONAL:

Married; children: two. Education: New School, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Madison, WI. Agent—c/o Author Mail, HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER:

Writer and teacher.

WRITINGS:

Safe in Heaven Dead, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor of stories to periodicals, including Story Quarterly, Manoa, Other Voices, and Cimarron Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

A Publishers Weekly reviewer claimed that Samuel Ligon's debut novel, Safe in Heaven Dead, "instantly seizes and holds the imagination … few readers will remain unmoved by the agonizing questions that drive this story." Safe in Heaven Dead revolves around Robert Elgin, a man running away from his problems. Elgin, married with two children, is a labor negotiator in Michigan. Things become unbearable as he is swept up in political scandals at work and his five-year-old daugther is sexually abused. Elgin goes on the run with a call-girl, Carla, whom he falls in love with. Ligon writes the novel from different perspectives and in a nonlinear style. It is told from Robert Elgin's point of view and from Carla's first-person viewpoint. In a review for January Magazine, David Abrams concluded, "As Safe in Heaven Dead gradually unspools, we become more and more engrossed in the characters and the circumstances that put them in their private hells."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2003, review of Safe in Heaven Dead, pp. 167-68.

Library Journal, March 1, 2003, Marriane Fitzgerald, review of Safe in Heaven Dead, p. 120.

New York Times Book Review, June 8, 2003, Charles Salzberg, review of Safe in Heaven Dead, p. 24.

Publishers Weekly, March 15, 2003, review of Safe in Heaven Dead.

ONLINE

Art Savant,http://www.artsavant.com/ (April 8, 2003), Lydia Arnold, interview with the author.

January Magazine,http://www.januarymagazine.com/ (October 30, 2003), David Abrams, review of Safe in Heaven Dead. *