William Kent Krueger
William Kent Krueger (born November 16, 1950 in Torrington , Wyoming ) is an award-winning American crime writer .
Life
William Kent Krueger grew up in different US states due to the frequently changing places of residence of his parents , but refers to Oregon as his home. He attended high school in Hood River (Oregon) and Manteca ( California ). After graduating, he began studying for a short time at Stanford University in California, which he left again in the summer of 1970 after disputes with the university administration because of his involvement in the political student protests against the Vietnam War . After two more years in college in Colorado He earned his living in a wide variety of activities, for example as a forest worker, in construction, freelance and most recently as an employee in a research laboratory.
Since his youth, Krueger enjoyed reading American classics by John Steinbeck , F. Scott Fitzgerald , James T. Farrell and Ernest Hemingway . The latter also influenced Krueger's later work style: How Heminway he developed an early riser and wrote before his starting work at The St. Clair Broiler , a small café in Tangletown, not far from Saint Paul , to short stories and other manuscripts . This is how his first successful novel Iron Lake came about, on which he worked from 1992 to 1996. Thanks to the great success, Krueger was later able to devote himself full-time to writing. William Kent Krueger is married and lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife Diane and has two children, daughter Seneca and son Adam.
The most important protagonist of his novels, which are mostly set in Minnesota , is ex-sheriff Cork O'Connor , half Irish, half from the Anishinabe Indian tribe . The background for the selection of the protagonist was the predilection for anthropology from his college days and the enthusiasm for Tony Hillerman's ethnic novels . Krueger dealt intensively with the culture of the Anishinabe in order to be able to do it justice with a sensitive representation.
Awards
- 1998 Loft-McKnight Fiction Award for Iron Lake (German Indian winter)
- 1999 Minnesota Book Awards - Mystery Category for Iron Lake
- 1999 Anthony Award - Best First Novel Category for Iron Lake
- 1999 Barry Award - Best First Novel category for Iron Lake
- 2002 Minnesota Book Awards - Popular Fiction Category for Purgatory Ridge
- 2003 The Reader's Choice Award - Best PI / Police Procedural category for Purgatory Ridge
- 2005 Anthony Award - Best Novel Category for Blood Hollow
- 2006 Anthony Award - Best Novel Category for Mercy Falls
- 2007 Minnesota Book Awards - Fiction Category for Copper River
- 2007 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award - Fiction, Poetry, Drama Category for Thunder Bay
- 2008 Lovey Award - Best PI / Police Procedural category for Thunder Bay
- 2008 Dilys Award for Thunder Bay
- 2008 Minnesota Book Awards - Fiction Category for Thunder Bay
- 2014 Dilys Award for Ordinary Grace
- 2014 Edgar Allan Poe Award - Best Novel category for Ordinary Grace
Works
Cork O'Connor series
- 1998 Iron Lake (German Indian winter . Goldmann, Munich 2000; ISBN 3-442-44538-8 )
- 1999 Boundary Waters
- 2001 Purgatory Ridge
- 2004 Blood Hollow
- 2005 Mercy Falls
- 2006 Copper River
- 2007 Thunder Bay
- 2008 Red Knife
- 2009 Heaven's Keep
- 2010 Vermilion Drift
- 2011 Northwest Angle
- 2012 Trickster's Point
- 2013 Tamarack County
- 2014 Windigo Island
- 2016 Manitou Canyon
- 2017 Sulfur Springs
- 2018 Desolation Mountain
Others
- 2003 The Devil's Bed
- 2013 Ordinary Grace
- For a short time we were happy (German translation by Tanja Handels), Piper, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-492-05845-2 .
Short stories
- 1998 Corpus Delicti . In: Mary Higgins Clark, Mystery Writers of America (Ed.): The Night Awakens
- 1998 Iron Lake , (excerpt). In: Winners of 1998 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Writers (Ed.): The Kiss of Pages Turning
- 2002 The Herring Choker . In: Boy's Life, January 2002 edition
- 2004 The Windigo . In: Boy's Life, March 2004 edition
- 2005 The Far Side of the River . In: Jessica Kaye, Richard J. Brewer (Eds.): Meeting Across the River: Stories Inspired by the Haunting Bruce Springsteen Song
- 2005 Before Swine . In: Minnesota Crime Wave (Ed.): The Silence of the Loons: Thirteen Tales of Mystery by Minnesota's Premier Crime Writers
- 2006 absolution . In: Joe A. Konrath (Ed.): These Guns For Hire
- 2006 thump . In: Julie Schaper, Steven Horwitz (Eds.): Twin Cities Noir
- 2006 Heat Lightning . In: Harlan Coben, Mystery Writers of America (Ed.): Till Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust, and Murder
- 2007 Hills Like White Rabbits . In: Minnesota Crime Wave (ed.): Resort to Murder: Thirteen More Tales of Mystery by Minnesota's Premier Writers
- 2009 Contender . In: Gary R. Bush, Chris Everheart (Eds.): Once Upon a Crime: An Anthology of Murder, Mayhem and Suspense
Web links
- Official website of the author
- Interview in Mystery Ink from March 2004 (English)
- Interview from the publishing house Simon & Schuster (English)
Remarks
- ↑ cf. according to information from Simon & Schuster
- ↑ cf. Interview in Mystery Ink ( Memento from May 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Official website of Saint Paul
- ↑ cf. 1999 official website (English)
- ↑ cf. Official website 2002 ( Memento of December 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ cf. Mystery Book Awards
- ↑ cf. Official website 2007 ( Memento of December 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ cf. Official Website (Previous Winners)
- ↑ Named The Reader's Choice Award until 2007
- ↑ cf. Mystery Book Awards
- ↑ cf. Official website 2008 ( Memento of December 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Krueger, William Kent |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American crime writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 16, 1950 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Torrington , Wyoming |