# Stephen O'Connor

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For the professor of biomedical engineering, see [Stephen O'Connor (academic)](/source/Stephen_O'Connor_(academic)).

Stephen O'Connor Born (1953-05-21) May 21, 1953 (age 73) New York City, U.S. Occupation Writer Nationality American Alma mater Columbia University University of California, Berkeley Genres Fiction non-fiction poetry Website 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,*[1] *The Best American Short Stories*,[2] *Conjunctions,*[3] and *New England Review.*[4] His essays have appeared in *The New York Times,*[5] and Agni.[6] His poems have been in *Poetry,*[7] *[The Beloit Poetry Journal](/source/The_Beloit_Poetry_Journal),*[8] and *Missouri Review.*[9]

## Early life

O’Connor was born May 21, 1952, in [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn), [New York](/source/New_York_City) to an Irish father and a French mother.[10] He grew up mainly in [New Jersey](/source/New_Jersey), and attended [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University), where he studied with Kenneth Koch[11] and [U.C. Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley), where he studied with [Leonard Michaels](/source/Leonard_Michaels).[12]

He published his first short story, “On the Wing”, in *[Partisan Review](/source/Partisan_Review)* in 1981.[13] His first book was *Rescue* (Harmony, 1989[14]), a collection of short stories, some realistic, some surrealistic, and a long narrative poem about [John Wesley Powell](/source/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](/source/Simon_%26_Schuster), 1996).[15] 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 [16]

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.[17]

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.[18]

[Ron Charles](/source/Ron_Charles_(critic)) 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](/source/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."[19]

## 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](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-943568-01-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/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

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** O’Connor, Stephen (22 June 2009). ["Ziggurat"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/29/ziggurat). *Newyorker.com*. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Best American Short Stories 2014 edited by Jennifer Egan"](http://lonesomereader.com/blog/2014/12/12/best-american-short-stories-2014-edited-by-jennifer-egan). Lonesome Reader. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Archived copy"](https://web.archive.org/web/20150601011427/http://www.conjunctions.com/archives/c58-so.htm). *www.conjunctions.com*. Archived from [the original](http://www.conjunctions.com/archives/c58-so.htm) on 1 June 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2022.{{[cite web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_web)}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_archived_copy_as_title))

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["We Want So Much to Be Ourselves"](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/). New England Review. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** O'Connor, Stephen (26 May 2001). ["When Children Relied on Faith-Based Agencies"](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/26/opinion/when-children-relied-on-faith-based-agencies.html). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["AGNI Online: AGNI 66 Table of Contents"](https://web.archive.org/web/20160315033223/http://www.bu.edu/agni/toc/66/). *www.bu.edu*. Archived from [the original](http://www.bu.edu/agni/toc/66/) on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Magazine, Poetry (29 April 2019). ["Biology by Stephen O'connor"](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/51257/biology). Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** ["Above the Lake by Stephen O'Connor"](http://www.versedaily.org/2013/abovethelake.shtml). *Versedaily.org*. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** ["The Missouri Review » Poetry Feature: Stephen O'Connor"](https://www.missourireview.com/article/poetry-feature-stephen-oconnor/). *Missourireview.com*. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Shengold, Nina. ["North of Eden"](https://www.chronogram.com/hudsonvalley/north-of-eden/Content?oid=2169573). Chronogram Magazine. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["STEPHEN O'CONNOR - Blog"](http://www.stephenoconnor.net/blog/posts/11879). *Stephenoconnor.net*. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** O'Connor, Stephen (3 August 2010). [*Here Comes Another Lesson: Stories*](https://books.google.com/books?id=u9QXk6iPGfoC&q=%22Stephen+O%27Connor%22+Leonard+Michaels&pg=PA304). Simon and Schuster. p. 304. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781439195000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781439195000). Retrieved 29 April 2019 – via Google Books.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["Partisan Review Online - Howard Gotlieb Center at Boston University"](https://web.archive.org/web/20150929043243/http://hgar-pub1.bu.edu/web/partisan-review/search-collection/detail/331519). *hgar-pub1.bu.edu*. Archived from [the original](http://hgar-pub1.bu.edu/web/partisan-review/search-collection/detail/331519) on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** ["Rescue. by O'Connor, Stephen: Harmony Books, New York First US edition (& 1st trade edition) - Cameron House Books"](https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Rescue-OConnor-Stephen-Harmony-Books-New/417692340/bd). *Abebooks.com*. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Haberman, Clyde (12 May 1996). ["Small Victories"](https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/12/books/small-victories.html). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** Martin, Douglas (15 February 1992). ["ABOUT NEW YORK; Racial Hatred Through Fresh Eyes"](https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/15/nyregion/about-new-york-racial-hatred-through-fresh-eyes.html). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** Bernstein, Richard (28 March 2001). ["BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Giving Street Urchins A Ticket to a New Life"](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/28/books/books-of-the-times-giving-street-urchins-a-ticket-to-a-new-life.html). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** ["Here Comes Another Lesson - Books - reviews, guides, things to do, film"](https://www.timeout.com/newyork/books/here-comes-another-lesson). Time Out New York. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** ["Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings in a New Book"](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). *[Washington Post](/source/Washington_Post)*. Retrieved 29 April 2019.

## External links

- [Official website](http://www.stephenoconnor.net)

Authority control databases Yale LUX

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