Uhlig, Richard 1970-

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Uhlig, Richard 1970-

Personal

Born February 19, 1970, in Herington, KS; son of a doctor and an office manager; married. Education: Attended New York University.

Addresses

Home—New York, NY. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Novelist and screenwriter. Has taught at Gotham Writer's Workshop and Wilkes University.

Writings

NOVELS

Last Dance at the Frosty Queen, Knopf (New York, NY), 2007.

Boy minus Girl, Knopf (New York, NY), 2008.

SCREENPLAYS

(With Steve Seitz) Viva Las Nowhere, (released on video as Dead Simple), Franchise Pictures, 2001.

Kept, Phoenician Entertainment, 2001.

Sidelights

A native of Kansas, Richard Uhlig has set his two well-received young-adult novels, Last Dance at the Frosty Queen and Boy minus Girl, in his home state. Uhlig, who originally pursued a career as a film director, wrote a number of screenplays before turning his attention to novels. "Reading and writing books is wonderful because it's so personal—it's you, alone, taking in what the author has written," he stated in an essay on the Random House Web site. "There's no laugh track to tell you something is funny, no composer writing songs to tell you when to cry. It's you and the written word. The author provides you images, dialogue, and plot, but it's up to you, the reader, to fill in the details based on your own experiences."

Last Dance at the Frosty Queen centers on Arty Flood, a high-school senior who desperately wants to escape the stifling, small-town atmosphere of Harker City, Kansas. Arty's life is full of complications, however; his father's funeral business is failing, the sheriff has blackmailed Arty into dating his daughter, and the teen is having an affair with one of his teachers. After he meets Vanessa, a California beauty who comes to Harker for a short stay, he begins to see his hometown in a new light. A critic in Publishers Weekly credited Uhlig with creating a likable protagonist, noting that Arty's "ambitions to make a future for himself and his desires loom at least as large as the outrageous situations that bedevil him." Writing in School Library Journal, Amy S. Pattee remarked that the author's "evocation of small-town life is perfect: everybody is in everybody else's business, and the townspeople's odd enterprises are well described."

In Boy minus Girl, eighth-grader Les Ekhardt dreads the thought of spending another dull summer with his parents until Uncle Ray, a free-wheeling bachelor who loves booze and women, arrives in town. Though Les clearly idolizes his uncle, the youngster has a change of heart after he learns that Ray has run from trouble. Reviewing Uhlig's middle-grade novel for Booklist, contributor Frances Bradburn called Boy minus Girl "a substantive young-adult novel" and described the characters as "vivid and authentic."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July 1, 2007, Lynn Rutan, review of Last Dance at the Frosty Queen, p. 49; September 15, 2008, Frances Bradburn, review of Boy minus Girl, p. 59.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2007, review of Last Dance at the Frosty Queen; November 15, 2008, review of Boy minus Girl.

Kliatt, July, 2007, Myrna Marler, review of Last Dance at the Frosty Queen, p. 21.

Publishers Weekly, August 13, 2007, review of Last Dance at the Frosty Queen, p. 68.

School Library Journal, July 1, 2007, Amy S. Pattee, review of Last Dance at the Frosty Queen, p. 138.