David Anthony Durham

Biography
David Anthony Durham has thus far built his reputation as an historical novelist. His first novel, Gabriel's Story, centered on African American settlers in the American West. Walk Through Darkness followed a runaway slave during the tense times leading up to the American Civil War. Pride of Carthage focused on Hannibal Barca of Ancient Carthage and his war with the Roman Republic. His novels have twice been New York Times Notable Books, won two awards from the American Library Association, and been translated into eight foreign languages. One of Durham's most recently released book, Acacia, is an epic fantasy.

Born in 1969 to parents of Caribbean ancestry, Durham has traveled widely throughout America and Europe and lived, along with his wife and children, in Scotland for a number of years. He has worked as an Outward Bound Instructor, and as a whitewater raft guide and kayak instructor. He taught at the University of Maryland, University of Massachusetts, and for the Stonecoast MFA Program. He won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Fiction Award in 1992, the 2002 Legacy Award for Debut Fiction and was a Finalist for the 2006 Legacy Award for Fiction. In 2009 he won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. He was the MacLean Distinguished Visiting Writer at The Colorado College, was an Associate Professor at California State University Fresno, and is now an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Hampshire College.

Education
As an undergraduate, David attended the University of Maryland Baltimore County on a Creative Arts Scholarship. He later received his MFA at the University of Maryland College Park.

Spring 2010
IA-0295-1 Writing the Fantastic: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror

Fall 2009
IA-0127-1 Writing Fiction: Color Blind or Color Sighted?

Novels and other works

 * Gabriel's Story (2001)
 * Walk Through Darkness (2002)
 * Pride of Carthage (2005)
 * Acacia: The War with the Mein (2007)
 * Acacia: The Other Lands (2009)
 * “An Act of Faith” (story), will be republished in the anthology It’s All Love, edited by Marita Golden, Doubleday, February 2009.
 * “Appreciation: The Green House, by Mario Vargas Llosa” (book recommendation, with commentary), (The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, edited by J. Peder Zane, W. W. Norton, January 2007).
 * “Recommendation: A Scot’s Quair, by Lewis Grassic Gibbon” (book recommendation, with commentary), (Post Road, 2005).
 * “An Act of Faith” (story), (Intimacy: Erotic Stories of Love, Lust, and Marriage by Black Men, edited by Robert Fleming, Plume, February 2004).
 * “The Boy-Fish” (story), (Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing, edited by Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris, Harlem Moon Press, October 2002).
 * “The She-Ape and the Occasional Idealist” (short story), (QWF (UK), June/July 2000).
 * “One Room Like a Cave” (story), (Staple: New Writing (UK), 1998).
 * “The Boy-Fish” (story), (Catalyst, Spring 1992).

Current Projects
Gabriel's Story, Walk Through Darkness, and Acacia: The War with the Mein have all been optioned for development as feature films. David continues to write, and a number of his short stories are still in the process of being published.

Additional Information
David Anthony Durham does not have an office on campus. Contact him through email to set up meeting times.

For more information on David and his projects, visit either his homepage or the Wikipedia page dedicated to him.