# Bill Barich

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Bill_Barich
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Bill_Barich.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Barich
> Source revision: 1353171901
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

**Bill Barich** (born 1943 in [Winona](/source/Winona,_Minnesota), [Minnesota](/source/Minnesota)) is an American writer.

## Biography

Barich grew up on [Long Island](/source/Long_Island) and graduated from [Colgate University](/source/Colgate_University) in 1965. Subsequently, he served in the U.S. [Peace Corps](/source/Peace_Corps) in eastern [Nigeria](/source/Nigeria) (Biafra), then settled in northern [California](/source/California) where many of his books are set. [citation needed]

He published *Laughing in the Hills*, his first book, a classic account of racetrack life, in 1980. William Shawn, editor of *[The New Yorker](/source/The_New_Yorker)*, ran a two-part excerpt from the book and appointed Barich a staff writer. His contributions over the next fifteen years fall into three categories: travel and the sporting life; reportage; and short fiction. *Traveling Light*, his account of a sojourn abroad in [Italy](/source/Italy) and [England](/source/England),[citation needed] appeared in 1984, after which he won a [Guggenheim Fellowship](/source/Guggenheim_Fellowship) in Fiction.[1] His other books include *Hard to Be Good* (stories); *Big Dreams: Into the Heart of California* (travel); *Carson Valley* (novel); *Crazy for Rivers* (angling/autobiography); and *A Fine Place to Daydream* (travel/racing). Barich's work has been included in *Best American Short Stories* and many other anthologies.[citation needed]

In addition to *The New Yorker*, he has contributed to *[Esquire](/source/Esquire_(magazine))*, *[Sports Illustrated](/source/Sports_Illustrated)*, *[American Poetry Review](/source/American_Poetry_Review)*, *[Salon](/source/Salon.com)*, *Narrative*, and other magazines and journals, and he is a Literary Laureate of the [San Francisco Public Library](/source/San_Francisco_Public_Library). He traveled between Santa Monica, California and [Dublin, Ireland](/source/Dublin,_Ireland). He has also written a book entitled *A Pint of Plain,* an account of his setting out to find a traditional authentic Irish pub. It is a lament of sorts as he is seeking the famous Pat Cohan-type pub of the [John Wayne](/source/John_Wayne) film *[The Quiet Man](/source/The_Quiet_Man)*. In 2010, Barich published *Long Way Home: On the Trail of Steinbeck's America* his account of a 5,943-mile cross-country trip undertaken in the autumn of 2008 just prior to the presidential election. He assesses the state of the nation in much the same way [John Steinbeck](/source/John_Steinbeck) did almost fifty years ago in *[Travels With Charley](/source/Travels_With_Charley).* From 2010 through 2012 he worked as the lead writer on the HBO series *[Luck](/source/Luck_(TV_series))*, about horses and racing, created by [David Milch](/source/David_Milch) and starring [Dustin Hoffman](/source/Dustin_Hoffman) and [Nick Nolte](/source/Nick_Nolte). In 2016, Barich published *An Angle on the World,* a collection of reporting from *The New Yorker*, travel pieces, personal essays, and book reviews.[citation needed]

## Bibliography

- *Laughing in the Hills* (1980)
- *Traveling Light* (1984)
- *Hard to Be Good* (1987)
- *Big Dreams: Into the Heart of California* (1994)
- *Carson Valley* (1997)
- *Crazy for Rivers* (1999)
- *The Sporting Life* (1999)
- *A Fine Place to Daydream* (2006)
- *A Pint of Plain* (2009)
- *Long Way Home: On the Trail of Steinbeck's America* (2010)
- *An Angle on the World* (2016)

## References

1. ["1984 U.S. and Canadian Fellows"](https://web.archive.org/web/20070731094137/http://www.gf.org/84fellow.html). Guggenheim Foundation. Archived from [the original](http://www.gf.org/84fellow.html) on 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2007-08-15.

- [Bill Barich Papers](http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/specol/collections/manuscripts/index.php?collection=752) at [Special Collections Dept.](http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/specol/) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160926215928/https://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/specol/) 2016-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, University Library, University of California, Davis

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Bill Barich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Barich) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Barich?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.