Mark Richard Knihy

Mark Richard's journey from a childhood marked by physical limitations to a celebrated writing career reveals a profound exploration of faith and identity. Growing up with a violent father and a mother focused on spirituality, he turned to literature during his bedridden years. Driven by a desire to experience life before his hips deteriorated, he engaged in various jobs and faced personal challenges. His narrative intertwines history, travel, and introspection, ultimately highlighting the resilience of the human spirit amidst adversity and the evolution of his artistic voice.

Focusing on the interplay between language and meaning, Mark Richard presents a compelling argument that performance and expression can outweigh semantic truth in evaluating sentences. He explores the concept of relative truth, addresses various criticisms of relativism and expressivism, and introduces an innovative perspective on subjective matters of taste. This thought-provoking analysis challenges conventional views and encourages readers to reconsider how they approach truth and expression in language.

Mark Richard ist kreolisch-französischer Abstammung, wurde in Louisiana geboren und wuchs in Texas und Virginia auf. Er arbeitete unter anderem als Reporter, Fotograf, Radioansager, Fischer, Barmann, Detektiv und Lehrer. Für sein literarisches Werk wurde er u. a. mit dem PEN/Faulkner Award und Stipendien der Ernest Hemingway Foundation ausgezeichnet. Nikolaus Stingl, geb. 1952 in Baden-Baden, übersetzte unter anderem William Gaddis, William Gass, Graham Greene, Cormac McCarthy und Thomas Pynchon. Er wurde mit dem Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt-Übersetzerpreis, dem Literaturpreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart, dem Paul- Celan-Preis und dem Straelener Übersetzerpreis der Kunststiftung NRW ausgezeichnet.

With Charity, Mark Richard again secures the distinction of poet laureate of the orphaned poor, the broken, the deceived, and the unrelieved. In stylistic brilliance, he renders their conditions with grace and compassion, and redeems and transports their tragedy with wicked humor.In the much-anthologized "The Birds for Christmas," two hospitalized boys beg a night nurse to let them watch Hitchcock's classic thriller film on television, believing it will relieve their Yuletide loneliness. "Gentleman's Agreement" is a classic father-son story of fear and the violence of love. In "Memorial Day," a bayou boy learns the lessons of living from Death himself, a fortune cookie-eating phantom who claims to be "a people person." From charity ward to outrageous beach bungalow, Richard visits the overlooked corners of America, making them unforgettably visible.Richard has been rightly compared to Faulkner for his language and to Flannery O'Connor for his stark moral vision, but his force and sensibility remain his own. Charity is a powerful reading experience, a true accomplishment in an already stunning literary career.