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John Michael Cummings (born 1963 in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia) is an American novelist and short story writer. His novels include ''The Night I Freed John Brown'' (Penguin Group, 2008), winner of the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People;〔Paterson Prize, (【引用サイトリンク】The 2009 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People )15 September 2009〕''Ugly To Start With'' (West Virginia University Press, 2011), IndieFab Award Finalist; and ''Don't Forget Me, Bro'' (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2015). ''Don't Forget Me, Bro'' has been excerpted in ''The Chicago Tribune''. Cummings' short stories and essays have appeared in more than seventy-five literary journals, including ''North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Chattahoochee Review, The Kenyon Review'', and ''The Iowa Review''. His short fiction has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. His short story "The Scratchboard Project" received an honorable mention in ''The Best American Short Stories 2007''. Cummings’ fiction is almost always set in West Virginia, but not clearly in the Mountain State most of us imagine. His young adult debut novel, ''The Night I Freed John Brown'', takes place in the historic village where the white abolitionist inflamed hawkish sentiments that helped provoke the Civil War. Cummings’ novel portrays a late twentieth century local family dealing with the town’s tourists and their worldly wise influences. The harsh father, with his intolerant, throwback attitudes, is set up as the anti-John Brown. The novel, using "history as a narrative tool,"〔B.J. Hollars, (【引用サイトリンク】Middle and High School Study Guide for The Night I Freed John Brown )29 October 2009〕 hit the top ten for Black History Month reading chosen by ''USA TODAY''. A collection of thirteen short stories billed as a novel in the form of stories, ''Ugly To Start With'' scatters its settings in and around Harpers Ferry, showing the rural side of West Virginia many have come to cherish and some to loathe. The stories, all previously published in literary journals as diverse as ''Confrontation'' and ''The Iowa Review'', feature a quickly growing-up version of the young protagonist by another name in ''The Night I Freed John Brown''. "A balance of grit and wonder,"〔Lee Martin, (【引用サイトリンク】Ugly To Start With )1 October 2011〕 the collection straddles between young adult and adult literature. The stories actually predate Cummings' debut novel by some ten years and were tailored for the collection to have one continuous narrative timeline."〔Anna Faktorovich, (【引用サイトリンク】Interview with the award-winning author John Michael Cummings )1 October 2011〕 In Cummings’ first adult novel, ''Don’t Forget Me, Bro'', he departs from Jefferson County and plunks a complex tale of supposed schizophrenia and genuine emotional abuse in the heart of Appalachia. The novel embraces “what happens when mental illness intersects with abuse, poverty, and misinformation in the South.”〔Karli Cude, (【引用サイトリンク】Don't Forget Me, Bro by John Michael Cummings )14 October 2014〕 Characters are marked by hate and blame and defy reconciliation over the death of the oldest brother at forty-five. A compromise is reached when the youngest brother realizes he is causing other deaths, as it were, by trying to forcibly undo one. Blurbed by more than a dozen West Virginia newspapers, the novel bears authenticity by a state native achieving “a linguistic and emotional range and sensitivity that are truly remarkable.”〔Gordon Osmond, (【引用サイトリンク】Don't Forget Me, Bro )22 November 2014〕 Cummings lives in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.〔Matt Armstrong, ("‘Ugly to Start With’ details life in W.Va." ), ''The Journal'', August 23, 2012.〕 == Works == ;Short stories * "Missing," ''Alaska Quarterly Review'', Vol.10, Spring/Summer 1992 * "Like Apes," ''Berkeley Fiction Review'', No. 11, 1992 * "Fourteen Seconds," ''The North American Review'', Summer 01 * "Mountains and Seas," ''Sou’wester'', 01 * "The Fence," ''Confrontation'', No. 82/83 Spring/Summer 03 * "The Gun Wall," ''North Dakota Quarterly'', Winter/Spring 03 * "Rising to the Occasion," ''South Dakota Review'', Winter 04 * "The Scratchboard Project," ''The Iowa Review'', Vol. 36, No. 1, 06 (Nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Honorable mention in ''The Best American Short Stories 2007)'' * "Treasure Hunt," ''The Chattahoochee Review'', Winter 07, Vol. 27, No.2 * "Marshmallow People," ''The Kenyon Review'', Winter 08, Vol. 30, No.1 ;Young adult novels * ''The Night I Freed John Brown''. New York: Philomel Books (Penguin Group), 2008. ISBN 978-0-399-25054-5 * ''Ugly to Start With'' Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-935-97808-4 ;Adult novels * ''Don't Forget Me, Bro''. Texas: Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-62288-078-2 ;Novellas * ''The House My Father''. Finalist, 2006 (Miami University Novella Contest ). * ''Chimney Rock''. Semi-finalist, Winnow Press 2004 First Book Award for Fiction. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Michael Cummings」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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