John Crowley

Science Fiction and fantasy writer John Crowley teaches fiction and creative writing at Yale University.

The School of Arts and Humanities has scheduled a talk from award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer John Crowley.

The lecture is set for Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the Jonsson Performance Hall.

“In the world of science fiction and fantasy writers, John Crowley is one of the greatest in the 20th century. In my opinion, his work Little, Big is the finest fantasy novel ever written by an American,” said Dr. Dennis M. Kratz, dean of the School of Arts and Humanities.

Little, Big is the epic story of Smoky Barnable, a young man who finds himself in a town called Edgewood — a place surrounded by magical strangeness on the border of an otherworld. It is the story of a family living in a house that is many houses put inside one another: the further you go, the bigger it gets.

The Washington Post called the book “ambitious, dazzling, strangely moving, a marvelous magic-realist family chronicle.”

Little, Big  won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel IN 1982.

In 1982, Little, Big garnered the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. The award is considered among the most prestigious in the speculative fiction genre. The novel also won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.

Crowley has also received the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella; the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Literature; the Lotus Award for Best Short Story; the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire; and the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. 

Crowley has also worked in films and television and written scripts for historical documentaries. His work has been shown at the New York Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival, among others. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Boston Review, the Yale Review, Conjunctions, Tin House and Lapham’s Quarterly.

Crowley teaches utopian fiction and creative writing at Yale University.  

The event is free and open to the public.