Szanto, George H(erbert) 1940-

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SZANTO, George H(erbert) 1940-

PERSONAL: Born June 4, 1940, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland; son of Mike M. and Dora (Zollschan) Szanto; married Alison Andrew, February 26, 1963; children: Elisabeth, David. Education: Dartmouth College, B.A., 1962; graduate study at University of Frankfurt am Main, 1962-63, and University of Aix-Marseille, 1965-66; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1967.

ADDRESSES: Home—41 Dufferin Rd., Montreal, Quebec, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Novelist, playwright, critic. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, assistant professor of dramatic and comparative literature, 1967-74 (on leave, 1973-74), head of comparative literature section, 1972-73; McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, associate professor of comparative literature, beginning 1974, chair of committee on humanistic studies and committee for modern languages, beginning 1975; currently emeritus professor. Executive director, New Heritage Theatre, 1970-74.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America, Canadian Comparative Literature Association (member of executive committee, beginning 1977), International Comparative Literature Association, Canadian Group for Studies in Paraliterature (chair, 1976-77), Writers Union of Canada, Guild of Canadian Playwrights.

AWARDS, HONORS: Hugh Maclennan Award for Fiction, for Friends & Marriages; Finalist, The Voices of Canada, 1980; Finalist, Books in Canada, First Novel Award, 1983, for Not Working; Silver Foundation Medal, National Magazine Awards, 1988, for "How Ali Cran Got His Name;" Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, 1988; ACTRA winner, Southwest Theatre Conference New Play Project, for The New Black Crook.

WRITINGS:

Narrative Consciousness: Structure and Perception in the Fiction of Kafka, Beckett and Robbe-Grillet, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1972.

Sixteen Ways to Skin a Cat (stories), Intermedia (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1977.

Theater and Propaganda, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1978.

After the Ceremony (play), Playwrights Co-op Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1978.

The Next Move (play), Playwrights Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1981.

Not Working, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1982.

Narrative Taste and Social Perspectives: The Matter of Quality, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1987.

The Underside of Stones: A Story Cycle, Harper & Row (New York, NY), 1990.

Friends & Marriages, Vehicule Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1994.

The Condesa of M, Comorant Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001.

Also author of plays, The New Black Crook, 1971, and with Milton Savage, Chinchill!, 1972. Member of editorial board, Europa (journal of the Interuniversity Center for European Studies), beginning 1977; cofounder and coeditor, Culture and Context, 1977—. Author's works are represented in anthologies.

Contributor to literary journals, including Kansas Quarterly, Bucknell Review, Massachusetts Review, and Canadian Comparative Literature Review.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, October 15, 1982, review of Not Working, p. 298; April 1, 1990, review of The Underside of Stones: A Story Cycle, p. 1530.

Books in Canada, March, 1983, review of Not Working, p. 27; April, 1984, review of Not Working, pp. 7, 8, 10; July, 1990, review of The Underside of Stones: A Story Cycle, p. 40; summer, 1995, review of Friends & Marriages, p. 29.

Canadian Forum, September, 1991, review of The Underside of Stones: A Story Cycle, p. 26.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), October 27, 2001, review of The Condesa of M.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1982, review of Not Working, p. 1125; March 15, 1990, review of The Underside of Stones: A Story Cycle, p. 378.

Library Journal, November 1, 1982, review of Not Working, p. 2111; April 15, 1990, review of The Underside of Stones: A Story Cycle, p. 126.

Maclean's, June 20, 1983, review of Not Working.

New York Times Book Review, February 6, 1983, review of Not Working, p. 20; July 29, 1990, review of The Underside of Stones: A Story Cycle, p. 20.

Publishers Weekly, October 8, 1982, review of Not Working, p. 56; March 16, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of The Underside of Stones: A Story Cycle, p. 60.

Quill & Quire, May, 1983, review of Not Working, p. 31; July, 1990, review of The Underside of Stones: A Story Cycle, p. 57; October, 2001, review of The Condesa of M.

Western American Literature, winter, 1985, review of Not Working, p. 328.