{{short description|American writer and journalist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox writer | name = William T. Vollmann | image = William T. Vollmann 2006.jpg | caption = Vollmann in 2006 | birth_name = William Tanner Vollmann | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1959|7|28}} | birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = {{flatlist| * Novelist * journalist * short story writer * essayist }} | education = [[Deep Springs College]]<br />[[Cornell University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]]) | period = 1987–present | subject = War, violence, science, human compassion | genre = [[Literary fiction]], historical fiction }}
'''William Tanner Vollmann''' (born July 28, 1959) is an American novelist, journalist, [[war correspondent]], short story writer and essayist. He won the 2005 [[National Book Award for Fiction]] with the novel ''[[Europe Central]]''.
==Biography== Vollmann was born in Los Angeles and lived there for five years. He attended public high school in [[Bloomington, Indiana]], and has also lived in New Hampshire, New York, and the [[San Francisco Bay Area]]. His father was Thomas E. Vollmann, a business professor at [[Indiana University]]. When he was nine years old, Vollmann's six-year-old sister drowned in a pond while under his supervision, and he felt responsible for her death.<ref name="Bell">{{cite news | first = Madison Smartt | last = Bell | title = William T. Vollmann, The Art of Fiction No. 163 | url = http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/620/the-art-of-fiction-no-163-william-t-vollmann | publisher = The Paris Review, no. 156 | date = Fall 2000 | access-date = August 9, 2012 }}</ref> According to him, this loss has influenced much of his work.<ref>[http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw/bw041104william_t_vollmann/ Interview: "William T. Vollman"], KCRW, April 11, 2004</ref>
Vollmann studied at [[Deep Springs College]], and completed a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], ''[[Latin honors|summa cum laude]]'', in [[comparative literature]] at [[Cornell University]],<ref name=pw>{{cite web |url=http://www.pw.org/content/interview_creative_nonfiction_writer_william_t_vollmann?cmnt_all=1 |title=An Interview With Creative Nonfiction Writer William T. Vollmann |last=Bush |first=Ben |work=Poets & Writers |date=March 30, 2006 |access-date=22 August 2013}}</ref> where he lived at the [[Telluride House]].<ref name="Bell" />
After graduation, Vollmann went on to the [[University of California, Berkeley]], on a fellowship for a doctoral program in [[comparative literature]].<ref name=Bell /> He dropped out after one year.<ref name=Braverman />
Vollmann lives in [[Sacramento, California]], with his wife, who is a [[radiation oncologist]].<ref name="Braverman">{{cite news | first = Kate | last = Braverman | title = An Interview with William T. Vollmann | url = http://katebraverman.com/interview.html | year = 2005 | access-date = August 9, 2012 | archive-date = June 6, 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130606171633/http://www.katebraverman.com/interview.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> In 2022, Vollmann's daughter Lisa died of complications from alcoholism.<ref>Vollmann, William T. (November 2023) "Four Men: Keeping Company with Outdoor People." Harper's. https://harpers.org/archive/2023/11/four-men.)</ref>
==Career== Vollmann worked odd jobs, including a post as a secretary at an insurance company and saved up enough money to go to [[Afghanistan]] in 1982. During this trip, he sought to gather information and images that could determine the most deserving candidates for American aid. He eventually embedded himself in a group of ''[[mujahideen]]'' heading for the front lines. He saw battle with the soldiers, who were [[Soviet–Afghan War|fighting the Soviet Union]], before he came down with [[dysentery]] and had to be dragged through the Hindu Kush mountains.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://032c.com/2011/william-t-vollmann-conflict-compassion-and-the-process-of-understanding/|title=WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN: Conflict, Compassion and the Process of Understanding|last=032c.com|access-date=July 17, 2014}}</ref> His experiences on this trip inspired his first non-fiction book, ''An Afghanistan Picture Show, or, How I Saved the World,'' which was not published until 1992.
Upon his return to the US, Vollmann started work as a computer programmer, even though he had virtually no experience with computers. According to a ''[[The New York Times Magazine|New York Times Magazine]]'' profile by the novelist [[Madison Smartt Bell]], for a year Vollmann wrote much of his first novel, ''[[You Bright and Risen Angels]]'', after hours on office computers, subsisting on candy bars from vending machines and hiding from the janitorial staff.<ref>{{cite news |first=Madison Smartt |last=Bell |authorlink=Madison Smartt Bell |title=WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990DE0DD1739F935A35751C0A962958260 |work=[[The New York Times Magazine]] |date=February 6, 1994 |access-date=3 January 2008 }}</ref>
His writing influences include [[Ernest Hemingway]], [[Comte de Lautréamont]], [[Louis-Ferdinand Celine]], [[Yukio Mishima]], [[Yasunari Kawabata]] and [[Leo Tolstoy]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Biblioklept |url=https://biblioklept.org/2011/09/24/william-t-vollmanns-favorite-contemporary-books/ |title=William T. Vollmann's Favorite "Contemporary" Books |publisher=biblioklept |date=September 24, 2011 |access-date=1 August 2012}}</ref>
In addition to full-length books, Vollmann has written articles and had stories published in ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harper's]]'', ''[[Playboy]]'', ''[[Conjunctions (journal)|Conjunctions]]'', ''[[Spin Magazine]]'', ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'', ''[[The New Yorker]]'', ''[[Gear (magazine)|Gear]]'' and ''[[Granta]].'' He has also contributed to ''[[The New York Times Book Review]].'' Vollmann identifies as a "hack journalist"; he often does travel writing and reportage while doing research for his larger fiction or non-fiction projects.
In November 2003 (after many delays), his book ''[[Rising Up and Rising Down]]'' was published. It is a 3,300-page, heavily illustrated, seven-volume treatise on violence. It was nominated for the [[National Book Critics Circle Award]]. A single-volume condensed version was published at the end of the following year by [[Ecco Press]]. Vollmann's sole justification for the abridgment was that he "did it for the money."<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/dec/15/parables-of-a-violent-world/ |title=Parables of a Violent World |last=Wood |first=Michael |authorlink=Michael Wood (academic) |date=December 15, 2005 |journal=[[The New York Review of Books]] |volume=52 |issue=20 |access-date=24 July 2014}}</ref> ''Rising Up and Rising Down'' represents more than 20 years of work in which he tries to establish a moral calculus to consider the causes, effects and ethics of violence. Vollmann based it on his reporting from places of warfare, including [[Cambodia]], [[Somalia]] and [[Iraq]].
Vollmann's other works often deal with the settlement of North America (as in ''[[Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes]]'', a cycle of seven novels); or stories of people (often prostitutes) on the margins of war, poverty and hope. His novel ''[[Europe Central]]'' (2005) follows the trajectories of a wide range of characters (including the Russian composer [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]) caught up in the fighting between Germany and the [[Soviet Union]]. It won the 2005 [[National Book Award#Fiction|National Book Award for Fiction]].
In 2008, he was awarded a five-year Strauss Living Award, which provides $50,000 a year, tax free, to allow writers to dedicate their time solely to writing. In 2009, Vollmann published ''[[Imperial (Vollmann book)|Imperial]],'' a nonfiction account of life in [[Imperial County, California]], on the border of Mexico.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ross |first=Steven |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2010/03/express/a-modest-imperialist |title=A MODEST IMPERIALIST: William T. Vollmann |work=The Brooklyn Rail |date=March 4, 2010 |access-date=1 August 2012}}</ref>
In 2010, Vollmann published a critical study of [[Noh|Japanese Noh theater]] entitled ''Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement, and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater''.<ref>{{cite book |title= Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement, and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater|date= c. 2009|isbn= 978-0061228483|last1= Vollmann|first1= William T.|publisher= HarperCollins}}</ref>
In 2008, as part of an exploration of femininity, Vollmann began cross dressing and developed a female alter ego named Dolores, which is documented in ''[[The Book of Dolores]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Book of Dolores|last=Vollmann|first=William T.|date=October 29, 2013|publisher=powerHouse Books|isbn=9781576876572|edition=1St|language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Becoming Dolores: William T. Vollmann Exposes His Female Alter Ego – 3:AM Magazine |url=https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/becoming-dolores-william-t-vollmann-exposes-his-female-alter-ego/ |access-date=2023-11-29 |language=en-GB}}</ref> "'Dolores is a relatively young woman trapped in this fat, aging male body,' Mr. Vollmann said. 'I’ve bought her a bunch of clothes, but she's not grateful. She would like to get rid of me if she could.'"<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/fashion/Author-William-T-Vollmann-Explores-His-Cross-Dressing.html|title=William T. Vollmann: The Self Images of a Cross-Dresser|last=Heyman|first=Stephen|date=November 13, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=4 March 2016}}</ref>
As early as 2007, Vollmann was writing ghost and supernatural stories—("Widow's Weeds" was published in ''[[AGNI (magazine)|AGNI]]'' no. 66 in 2007).<ref>{{cite web |title= AGNI 66 Table of Contents (2007)|url= https://www.bu.edu/agni/toc/66/index.html|date= c. 2008|work= [[AGNI (magazine)|AGNI]] Online| publisher= [[Boston University]]|access-date=July 26, 2009}}</ref>—which were eventually published by Viking as ''Last Stories and Other Stories''. In interviews, he has mentioned a book about abortion called ''The Shame of Our Youth,'' as well as a study on rape cases in court.<ref>''William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2009</ref>
Vollmann's papers were acquired by the Rare Books & Manuscripts Library of [[Ohio State University]].<ref>[http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/sites/rarebooks/finding/vollmann.html "William T. Vollmann papers"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901074422/http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/sites/rarebooks/finding/vollmann.html |date=September 1, 2006 }}, Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University</ref>
In his personal life, Vollmann – who eschews not only the fame of authorship but also cellphones, credit cards and other modern age touchstones – has sometimes been characterized as a misanthrope, even a [[Luddite]]. In a 2013 ''[[Harper's]]'' essay, "Life as a Terrorist", Vollmann revealed how the perception of "anti-progress, anti-industrialist themes" in his early writings had changed his life. Utilizing official files obtained through the [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]], the essay details Vollmann's investigation by the [[FBI]] as a suspect in the mid-1990s [[Unabomber]] case. Though he was cleared, Vollmann describes a lifetime of unabating negative repercussions from his permanent classified record.<ref>{{cite web|last=Lai |first=Jennifer |date=August 2013 |title=How the FBI's Poor Reading Skills Led It to Suspect an Acclaimed Author Was the Unabomber |website=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/08/22/william_vollmann_unabomber_life_of_a_terrorist_in_harper_s_magazine_details.html |access-date=24 July 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Vollmann |first=William T. |date=September 2013 |title=Life as a Terrorist: Undercovering My FBI File |magazine=[[Harper's Magazine|Harper's]] |publisher=Harper's Foundation |volume=327 |issue=1960 |pages=39–47 |url=http://harpers.org/archive/2013/09/life-as-a-terrorist/ |access-date=December 6, 2013 }}{{subscription required}}</ref>
In August 2025, Vollmann revealed that he had been battling colon cancer for years, was undergoing chemotherapy treatment and had a life expectancy of 2-3 years.<ref> https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/the-last-untamed-writer-in-america-6d2a129f </ref>
==Studies== Full-length critical essays about Vollmann's work have been published in ''Review of Contemporary Fiction, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, BookForum,'' ''Open Letters Monthly'', and ''Science Fiction Studies.'' In 2010, the German magazine ''[[032c]]'' dedicated 40 pages of its 19th issue to Vollmann, and featured a rare interview with the author in addition to reprinted texts.<ref>[http://032c.com/archive/issues/no19/ "William T. Vollmann Against the Tyrannical World"], ''[[032c]]'', issue 19 (Summer 2010).</ref>
[[Michael Hemmingson]] co-edited, with [[Larry McCaffery]], ''Expelled from Eden: A WTV Reader'' (NY: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2004) and published ''William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews'' (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co) in 2009.
''William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion'', edited by Christopher K. Coffman and Daniel Lukes, and including contributions from Larry McCaffery, Jonathan Franzen, Michael Hemmingson, James Franco, Carla Bolte, and others, was published by the University of Delaware in October 2014. ''Conversations with William T. Vollmann'', edited by Daniel Lukes, and including pieces by Jonathan Coe, Dennis Cooper, and Donna Seaman, was published by University Press of Mississippi in January 2020.
==Awards== * (1988) [[Whiting Awards|Whiting Award]] * (2005) [[National Book Award for Fiction]] for ''[[Europe Central]]''
==Bibliography== {{Main|William T. Vollmann bibliography}} ==== Novels ==== * ''[[You Bright and Risen Angels]]'' (1987, Penguin) * ''[[Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes]]'' (1990-) ** ''[[The Ice-Shirt|Volume I: The Ice-Shirt]]'' (1990, Viking) ** ''[[Fathers and Crows|Volume II: Fathers and Crows]]'' (1992, Viking) ** ''[[Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith|Volume III: Argall]]'' (2001, Viking) ** ''[[The Dying Grass|Volume V: The Dying Grass]]'' (2015, Viking) ** ''[[The Rifles (novel)|Volume VI: The Rifles]]'' (1994, Viking) *''Whores for Gloria'' (1992, Pantheon) *''[[The Atlas (novel)|The Atlas]]'' (1996, Viking) *''[[The Royal Family (novel)|The Royal Family]]'' (2000, Viking) *''[[Europe Central]]'' (2005, Viking) *''The Lucky Star'' (2020, Viking) *''A Table for Fortune'' (forthcoming, 2026, Arcade Publishing), a four-part novel<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Table for Fortune: Box Set |url=https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/arcade-publishing/9781648211881/a-table-for-fortune-box-set/ |access-date=2026-05-21 |website=Arcade Publishing |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=13 February 2026 |title=How ‘A Table for Fortune’ by William T. Vollman Got Made |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/99689-how-a-table-for-fortune-by-william-t-vollman-got-made.html |access-date=2026-05-21 |website=Publishers Weekly |language=en}}</ref> ==== Short story collections ====
* ''[[The Rainbow Stories]]'' (1989, Penguin) *''Thirteen Stories and Thirteen Epitaphs'' (1991, Pantheon) *''Last Stories and Other Stories'' (2014, Penguin)
=== Non-fiction === * ''An Afghanistan Picture Show'' (1992, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) * ''[[Rising Up and Rising Down]]'' (2003, McSweeney's), seven-volume collection * ''Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means'' (2005, Ecco), abridged version * ''Uncentering the Earth: Copernicus and the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres'' (2006, Atlas Books/W. W. Norton) * ''Poor People'' (2007, Ecco) *''Riding Towards Everywhere'' (2008, Ecco) *''[[Imperial (book)|Imperial]]'' (2009, Viking) *''Kissing the Mask'' (2010, Ecco) *''Into the Forbidden Zone: A Trip Through Hell and High Water in Post-Earthquake Japan'' (2011, Byliner Books), published as an ebook *''Carbon Ideologies'' (2018) **''No Immediate Danger: Volume One'' (2018, Viking) **''No Good Alternative: Volume Two'' (2018, Viking)
==See also== * [[1994 roadside attack on Spin magazine journalists]]
==References== {{Reflist|35em}}
==External links== *[https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/vollmann.php William T. Vollmann Collection, 1980–2000] The Ohio State University's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library *[https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/vollmann_2003-04.php William T. Vollmann Collection, 2003–2004] The Ohio State University's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library *[https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/vollmann_2004-05.php William T. Vollmann Collection, 2004–2005] The Ohio State University's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library *[https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/vollmann_2001-07.php William T. Vollmann Collection, 2001–2007] The Ohio State University's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library *[https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/rarebooks/vollmann_2008-10.php William T. Vollmann Collection, 2008–2010] The Ohio State University's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library *[https://hdl.handle.net/1811/73090 "A Conversation with William T. Vollmann"] Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, September 15, 2015. Vollmann reading from ''The Dying Grass'' and in conversation with Professor Brian McHale, The Ohio State University Department of English. *[https://www.nybooks.com/articles/18560 Profile of Vollmann in the New York Review of Books, December 2005] *[https://archive.today/20070928055843/http://66.111.110.102/newyork/DetailsAr.do?file=features/253/253.ft.vollman.html TimeOut New York interview] *[https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/william-t-vollmann#/ Profile at The Whiting Foundation] *[http://bookforum.com/inprint/015_05/3246 "Seeing Eye to Eye"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928222457/http://bookforum.com/inprint/015_05/3246 |date=September 28, 2011 }}, Vollmann on ethics in photography, in [[Bookforum]], Feb/Mar *[http://openlettersmonthly.com/issue/troubled-guests-of-earth/ Critical essay on Vollmann at ''Open Letters''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321132321/https://www.openlettersmonthly.com/issue/troubled-guests-of-earth/ |date=March 21, 2019 }} *[https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishtalks/6/ William Vollmann’s Burqa] by Guy Reynolds, on Vollmann's "literary globalism." *{{cite journal| url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/620/the-art-of-fiction-no-163-william-t-vollmann| title=William T. Vollmann, The Art of Fiction No. 163| author= Madison Smartt Bell| journal=The Paris Review| date= Fall 2000 | volume=Fall 2000| issue=156}} *[https://brooklynrail.org/2010/03/express/a-modest-imperialist/ In Conversation: A Modern Imperialist: William T. Vollmann, ''The Brooklyn Rail''] * [https://newrepublic.com/article/118748/william-t-vollmanns-dangerously-uncorrupted-literary-mind You Are Now Entering the Demented Kingdom of William T. Vollmann], The New Republic, July 24, 2014. *{{cite interview |subject-link=William T. Vollmann |interviewer=[[Michael Silverblatt]] |title=Fathers and Crows |url=http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-vollmann/ |work=Bookworm|publisher=KCRW |date=November 1992 }} *{{cite interview |subject-link=William T. Vollmann |interviewer=[[Michael Silverblatt]] |title=The Royal Family |url=http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-t-vollmann/ |work=Bookworm|publisher=KCRW |date=January 2001 }} *{{cite interview |subject-link=William T. Vollmann |interviewer=[[Michael Silverblatt]] |title=Rising Up and Rising Down |url=http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-t-vollmann-1/ |work=Bookworm|publisher=KCRW |date=November 2004 }} *{{cite interview |subject-link=William T. Vollmann |interviewer=[[Michael Silverblatt]] |title=Riding toward Everywhere |url=http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-t-vollmann-2/ |work=Bookworm|publisher=KCRW |date=March 2008 }} *{{cite interview |subject-link=William T. Vollmann |interviewer=[[Michael Silverblatt]] |title=Last Stories and Other Stories (Part I) |url=http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-t-vollmann-last-stories-and-other-stories-part-i/ |work=Bookworm|publisher=KCRW |date=August 2014 }} *{{cite interview |subject-link=William T. Vollmann |interviewer=[[Michael Silverblatt]] |title=Last Stories and Other Stories (Part II) |url=http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/william-t-vollmann-last-stories-and-other-stories-part-ii/ |work=Bookworm|publisher=KCRW |date=August 2014 }} * [http://www.bookslut.com/features/2005_11_006908.php Bookslut, an interview with William T. Vollmann], November 2005. {{William T. Vollman |state=collapsed}}
{{NBA for Fiction 2000–2024}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vollmann, William T.}} [[Category:20th-century American novelists]] [[Category:21st-century American novelists]] [[Category:American male novelists]] [[Category:American war correspondents]] [[Category:Cornell University alumni]] [[Category:Deep Springs College alumni]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:1959 births]] [[Category:National Book Award winners]] [[Category:American postmodern writers]] [[Category:Writers from Sacramento, California]] [[Category:American male essayists]] [[Category:American male short story writers]] [[Category:20th-century American short story writers]] [[Category:American Book Award winners]] [[Category:21st-century American short story writers]] [[Category:20th-century American essayists]] [[Category:21st-century American essayists]] [[Category:20th-century American male writers]] [[Category:21st-century American male writers]]