{{about||the professor of biomedical engineering|Stephen O'Connor (academic)}} {{infobox writer |name=Stephen O'Connor |image=Stephen O'Connor - Photo by Ema O'Connor.jpg |birth_date={{birth date and age|1953|5|21}} |birth_place=[[New York City]], U.S. |occupation=Writer |nationality=American |alma_mater=[[Columbia University]]<br>[[University of California, Berkeley]] |genres={{flatlist| *Fiction *non-fiction *poetry }} |website={{url|https://www.stephenoconnor.net}} }} '''Stephen O’Connor''' (born May 21, 1952) is an American writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. His most recent novel ''Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings'' has been published by Viking. His short fiction has appeared in ''The New Yorker,''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/29/ziggurat|title=Ziggurat|first=Stephen|last=O’Connor|date=22 June 2009|accessdate=29 April 2019|website=Newyorker.com}}</ref> ''The Best American Short Stories'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lonesomereader.com/blog/2014/12/12/best-american-short-stories-2014-edited-by-jennifer-egan|title=Best American Short Stories 2014 edited by Jennifer Egan|publisher=Lonesome Reader|accessdate=29 April 2019}}</ref> ''Conjunctions,''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.conjunctions.com/archives/c58-so.htm |title=Archived copy |website=www.conjunctions.com |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150601011427/http://www.conjunctions.com/archives/c58-so.htm |archive-date=1 June 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and ''New England Review.''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nereview.com/back-issues/vol-33-1-4-2012-2013/vol-33-no-3-2012/stephen-oconnor-we-want-so-much-to-be-ourselves/|title=We Want So Much to Be Ourselves|publisher=New England Review|accessdate=29 April 2019}}</ref> His essays have appeared in ''The New York Times,''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/26/opinion/when-children-relied-on-faith-based-agencies.html|title=When Children Relied on Faith-Based Agencies|first=Stephen|last=O'Connor|date=26 May 2001|accessdate=29 April 2019|website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> and Agni.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bu.edu/agni/toc/66/ |title=AGNI Online: AGNI 66 Table of Contents |website=www.bu.edu |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315033223/http://www.bu.edu/agni/toc/66/ |archive-date=15 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> His poems have been in ''Poetry,''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/51257/biology|title=Biology by Stephen O'connor|first=Poetry|last=Magazine|date=29 April 2019|publisher=Poetry Foundation|accessdate=29 April 2019}}</ref> ''[[The Beloit Poetry Journal]],''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.versedaily.org/2013/abovethelake.shtml|title=Above the Lake by Stephen O'Connor|website=Versedaily.org|accessdate=29 April 2019}}</ref> and ''Missouri Review.''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.missourireview.com/article/poetry-feature-stephen-oconnor/|title=The Missouri Review » Poetry Feature: Stephen O'Connor|website=Missourireview.com|accessdate=29 April 2019}}</ref>
==Early life== O’Connor was born May 21, 1952, in [[Brooklyn]], [[New York City|New York]] to an Irish father and a French mother.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chronogram.com/hudsonvalley/north-of-eden/Content?oid=2169573|title=North of Eden|first=Nina|last=Shengold|publisher=Chronogram Magazine|accessdate=29 April 2019}}</ref> He grew up mainly in [[New Jersey]], and attended [[Columbia University]], where he studied with Kenneth Koch<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stephenoconnor.net/blog/posts/11879|title=STEPHEN O'CONNOR - Blog|website=Stephenoconnor.net|accessdate=29 April 2019}}</ref> and [[University of California, Berkeley|U.C. Berkeley]], where he studied with [[Leonard Michaels]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u9QXk6iPGfoC&q=%22Stephen+O%27Connor%22+Leonard+Michaels&pg=PA304|title=Here Comes Another Lesson: Stories|first=Stephen|last=O'Connor|date=3 August 2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=304|isbn=9781439195000|accessdate=29 April 2019|via=Google Books}}</ref>
He published his first short story, “On the Wing”, in ''[[Partisan Review]]'' in 1981.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hgar-pub1.bu.edu/web/partisan-review/search-collection/detail/331519 |title=Partisan Review Online - Howard Gotlieb Center at Boston University |website=hgar-pub1.bu.edu |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929043243/http://hgar-pub1.bu.edu/web/partisan-review/search-collection/detail/331519 |archive-date=29 September 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> His first book was ''Rescue'' (Harmony, 1989<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Rescue-OConnor-Stephen-Harmony-Books-New/417692340/bd|title=Rescue. by O'Connor, Stephen: Harmony Books, New York First US edition (& 1st trade edition) - Cameron House Books|website=Abebooks.com|accessdate=29 April 2019}}</ref>), a collection of short stories, some realistic, some surrealistic, and a long narrative poem about [[John Wesley Powell]]’s exploration of the Grand Canyon.
==Literary and teaching career== From 1988 until 1996, he directed a school-wide Teachers and Writers Collaborative program at a combined elementary and middle school in New York City, which became the subject of his second book, ''Will My Name Be Shouted Out?'' ([[Simon & Schuster]], 1996).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/12/books/small-victories.html|title=Small Victories|first=Clyde|last=Haberman|date=12 May 1996|accessdate=29 April 2019|website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> While this book is nominally a memoir, it primarily concerns a group of students whom O’Connor helped to write and perform plays about actual incidents of violence in New York City, and whose lives exemplify the ways that talented and hard-working Black and Latino children are ill-served by schools, social policy and many other aspects of American culture <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/15/nyregion/about-new-york-racial-hatred-through-fresh-eyes.html|title=ABOUT NEW YORK; Racial Hatred Through Fresh Eyes|first=Douglas|last=Martin|date=15 February 1992|accessdate=29 April 2019|website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>
O’Connor returned to the topics of poor children and social policy in his next book, ''Orphan Trains; The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed'' (Houghton Mifflin, 2001), a nonfiction account of a controversial nineteenth and early twentieth century effort, under which vagrant and/or orphaned children in New York City were sent, generally by train to the country where they would be taken in and sometimes exploited by local families.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/28/books/books-of-the-times-giving-street-urchins-a-ticket-to-a-new-life.html|title=BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Giving Street Urchins A Ticket to a New Life|first=Richard|last=Bernstein|date=28 March 2001|accessdate=29 April 2019|website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>
Like ''Rescue'', ''Here Comes Another Lesson'' (Free Press, 2010), O’Connor’s second collection of short fiction, contains a wide variety of surreal and realistic stories, one about a minotaur and a computer-game playing “new girl", another about a traumatized soldier just back from Iraq, and a series of stories about a professor of atheism.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/books/here-comes-another-lesson|title=Here Comes Another Lesson - Books - reviews, guides, things to do, film|publisher=Time Out New York|accessdate=29 April 2019}}</ref>
[[Ron Charles (critic)|Ron Charles]] from ''The Washington Post'' reviewed the most recent novel and said that "[...] with its magically engineered collection of fiction, history and fantasy, and particularly with its own capacious spirit, ''[[Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings]]'' doesn’t just knock Jefferson off his pedestal, it blows us over, too, shatters the whole sinner-saint debate and clears out new room to reconsider these two impossibly different people who once gave birth to the United States. It’s heartbreaking. It’s cathartic. It’s utterly brilliant."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/thomas-jefferson-dreams-of-sally-hemings-in-a-new-book/2016/04/07/4c09c04a-fcbb-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html|title=Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings in a New Book|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]|accessdate=29 April 2019}}</ref>
==Publications== ===Books=== *''Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings'', Viking *''Here Comes Another Lesson'', ''Free Press'' *''Orphan Trains; The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed'', Houghton Mifflin/U. Chicago *''Will My Name Be Shouted Out?'', Simon & Schuster/Touchstone *''Rescue, New York'', Harmony Books
===Fiction=== *''Bell's Door'' {{ISBN|0-943568-01-3}}
===Nonfiction=== *“Against Assessment,” Beck, Heather, ed. Teaching Creative Writing in Higher Education *“Charles Loring Brace,” Shweder, Richard A., ed. The Chicago Companion to the Child
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Official website|www.stephenoconnor.net}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Stephen}} [[Category:1952 births]] [[Category:20th-century American writers]] [[Category:21st-century American writers]] [[Category:Columbia University alumni]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]] [[Category:Writers from New Jersey]] [[Category:20th-century American male writers]]