Ethan Andrew Canin was born on July 19, 1960 in Ann Arbor during his parent's vacation from Iowa City where his father taught violin at the University of Iowa.
While still a young child, his family moved around various parts of the northeast of the United States, eventually settling in San Francisco where Canin attended and graduated from Town School and then from San Francisco University High School.
He attended Stanford University and earned an undergraduate degree in English, and then entered the Iowa Writers' Workshop, receiving an MFA in 1984. Then, apparently considering himself a failure as a writer, he entered Harvard Medical School graduating in 1991.
He practiced medicine until 1998 while also pursuing his writing. He co-founded the San Francisco Writers' Grotto in 1994 and, in 1998, left medicine to join the faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he still teaches.
Bibliography
The Palace Thief (stories, 1994) (made into, the movie The
Emperor's Club) Emperor of the Air (stories, 1988) Blue River (1992) For Kings And Planets (1999) Carry Me Across The Water (2002) America America (2008)
This biography was last updated on 07/25/2008.
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