{{short description|American writer (born 1972)}} {{use mdy dates|date=March 2026}} {{Infobox writer |name =Kevin John Brockmeier |image = Kevin Brockmeier.jpg |imagesize = 170px |birth_date = {{birth date and age|1972|12|6|mf=y}} |birth_place = Hialeah, Florida, U.S. |occupation = Author |education = Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School<br>Southwest Missouri State University<br>Iowa Writers' Workshop (MFA) |notable_works = ''Things That Fall from the Sky''<br>''The View From The Seventh Layer''<br>''The Brief History of the Dead'' }} '''Kevin John Brockmeier''' (born December 6, 1972) is an American writer of fantasy and literary fiction. His best known work is the 2006 novel ''The Brief History of the Dead''.
==Early life and education== Kevin John Brockmeier{{cn|date=March 2026}} was born on December 6, 1972<ref name="Curr Bio">{{cite book|title=Current Biography Yearbook 2010|year=2010|publisher=H.W. Wilson|location=Ipswich, MA|isbn=9780824211134|pages=[https://archive.org/details/currentbiography2010unse/page/67 67–70]|chapter=Brockmeier, Kevin|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/currentbiography2010unse/page/66/mode/2up}}</ref> in Hialeah, Florida, and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bestyoungnovelists.com/Kevin-Brockmeier |title=''Granta'' Best of Young American Novelists 2: Kevin Brockmeier |work=Granta |accessdate=May 17, 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509162608/http://www.bestyoungnovelists.com/Kevin-Brockmeier |archivedate=May 9, 2010 }}</ref>
He is a graduate of Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School (1991) and Southwest Missouri State University (1995).{{cn|date=March 2026}} He taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he received his MFA in 1997.{{cn|date=March 2026}}
==Career== Brockmeier's short stories have been printed in numerous publications. He has published short story collections, children's novels, and fantasy novels.{{cn|date=March 2026}}
==Awards and honors== Brockmeier has won three O. Henry Prizes, the ''Chicago Tribune'''s Nelson Algren Award for Short Fiction, Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award, the Booker Worthen Literary Prize, and the Porter Fund Literary Prize.<ref>{{cite web | title=Kevin John Brockmeier | first = Scott A. |last=Johnson| website=Arkansas Democrat Gazette | date=5 March 2006 | url=https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2006/mar/05/kevin-john-brockmeier/ | access-date=17 March 2026|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
His awards include:{{cn|date=March 2026}} * O. Henry Award (2000 for the short story "These Hands" and 2002 for "The Ceiling") * Nelson Algren Award * Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award * James Michener–Paul Engle Fellowship * National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient
==Selected works== ===Story collections=== * ''Things That Fall from the Sky'' (New York City: Pantheon Books, 2002, {{ISBN|0-375-42134-3}}) * ''The View From The Seventh Layer'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2008, {{ISBN|0-375-42530-6}}) * ''The Ghost Variations'' (Penguin Random House, 2021, {{ISBN|9781524748838}})
===Novels=== * ''The Truth About Celia'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2003, {{ISBN|0-375-42135-1}}) * ''The Brief History of the Dead'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2006, {{ISBN|0-375-42369-9}}) * ''The Illumination'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2011, {{ISBN|0-375-42531-4}})
===Memoir=== * ''A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip: A Memoir of Seventh Grade'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2014, {{ISBN|0-307-90898-4}})
=== For younger readers === * ''City of Names'' (Viking, 2002) * ''Grooves: A Kind of Mystery'' (New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2006, {{ISBN|0-06-073691-7}})
===Miscellaneous stories=== * "The Brief History of the Dead" (published in ''The New Yorker'' September 8, 2003; used as the first chapter of the novel by the same name) <small>For more information on individual stories, see ''Things That Fall from the Sky''</small>
===Anthologies as editor=== *''Real Unreal: Best American Fantasy 3'', edited by Kevin Brockmeier (Portland, Underland Press, scheduled January 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-9802260-8-9}}).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.underlandpress.com/book_detail.cfm?RecordID=17 |title=Underland Press details for ''Real Unreal: Best American Fantasy 3''. |access-date=2009-06-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090907174148/http://underlandpress.com/book_detail.cfm?RecordID=17 |archive-date=2009-09-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==External links== {{Portal|Children and Young Adult Literature}} * {{official|https://kevinbrockmeier.com/}} *{{isfdb name|id=Kevin_Brockmeier|name=Kevin Brockmeier}} * [https://earthgoat.blogspot.com/2006/04/kevin-brockmeier-interview.html "Kevin Brockmeier Interview"]. EarthGoat. April 3, 2006. * McMyne, Mary. [https://www.webdelsol.com/Literary_Dialogues/interview-wds-brockmeier.htm "Turning Inward: A Conversation with Kevin Brockmeier"], ''Del Sol Literary Dialogues'', Web del Sol/Algonkian Workshops. (2004).
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brockmeier, Kevin}} Category:American children's writers Category:American fantasy writers Category:21st-century American novelists Category:Living people Category:Writers from Little Rock, Arkansas Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Category:1972 births Category:American male novelists Category:American male short story writers Category:21st-century American short story writers Category:21st-century American male writers Category:Novelists from Iowa Category:American weird fiction writers Category:O. Henry Award winners