Chris Crutcher

Chris Crutcher (2007)

Chris Crutcher (born July 17, 1946 in Dayton , Ohio ) is an American writer and family therapist.

Life

Crutcher was born in Dayton on July 17, 1946, the son of an American Air Force fighter pilot . Shortly thereafter, his father decided to leave the armed forces and move to Cascade, Idaho with his wife and sons Chris and John.

Crutcher was active in many sports early on, including football and basketball.

He studied psychology and sociology at Eastern Washington State College (now Eastern Washington University ) and some time later began teaching at schools in Washington and California .

In the early 1970s he took the position of director of California's Lakeside School in Oakland, which he left in 1981 to devote himself to writing and working as a therapist.

Write

In 1983 Crutcher published his debut novel Running Loose , the plot of which, like most of his follow-up works, moves between youth drama and sport. Crutcher's writing is strongly influenced by his experiences as a family therapist and aims to be both authentic and to maintain a balance between comedy and tragedy.

He has received several awards, including the St. Katharine Drexel Award , Writer Magazine's Writers Who Make A Difference Award, and the National Intellectual Freedom Award . In 2000 he received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association for great service in youth literature .

Works (selection)

• Running Loose , 1983
• Stotan! , 1986
• The Crazy Horse Electric Game , 1987
• Chinese Handcuffs , 1989
• Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories , 1991
• The Deep End , 1991
• Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes , 1993
• Ironman , 1995
• Whale Talk , 2001
• King of the Mild Frontier , 2003
• The Sledding Hill , 2005
• Deadline , 2007

Web links

• Chris Crutcher in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
• Chris Crutcher official homepage