Professional Summary
Tom LeClair is the co-editor of a book of interviews, Anything Can Happen; the author of two critical books about American fiction--In the Loop and The Art of Excess; the author of seven novels--Passing Off, Well-Founded Fear, Passing On, The Liquidators, Passing Through, Lincoln’s Billy, and Passing Away; and two books of essays—What to Read (and Not) and Harpooning Donald Trump. His essays, interviews, stories, and reviews have appeared in Paris Review, TriQuarterly, Witness, Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, and many other periodicals. An Emeritus Professor, he taught undergraduate courses in all periods of American literature, graduate courses in contemporary fiction, and Creative Writing.
Education
Ph. D.: Duke University 1972
Research Support
1997 University of Cincinnati Taft Research Grant Type:Grant
1990 University of Cincinnati Taft Research Grant Type:Grant
1987 University of Cincinnati Taft Research Grant Type:Grant
1985 University of Cincinnati Taft Research Grant Type:Grant
1981 University of Cincinnati Taft Research Grant Type:Grant
1979 University of Cincinnati Taft Research Grant Type:Grant
1978 University of Cincinnati Taft Research Grant Type:Grant
1976 University of Cincinnati Taft Research Grant Type:Grant
1974 University of Cincinnati Taft Research Grant Type:Grant
1973 University of Cincinnati Taft Research Grant Type:Grant
1974 University of Cincinnati University Research Council Grant Type:Grant
1976 University of Cincinnati University Research Council Grant Type:Grant
1978 University of Cincinnati University Research Council Grant Type:Grant
1979 University of Cincinnati University Research Council Grant Type:Grant
1980 University of Cincinnati University Research Council Grant Type:Grant
1988 University of Cincinnati University Research Council Grant Type:Grant
Abbreviated Publications
Book
Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists. University of Illinois Press, 1983.
In the Loop: Don DeLillo and the Systems Novel. University of Illinois Press, 1987.
The Art of Excess: Mastery in Contemporary American Fiction. University of Illinois Press, 1989.
Passing Off. Permanent Press, 1996.
Well-Founded Fear. Olin Frederick, 2000.
Passing On. Greekworks, 2004.
The Liquidators. Greekworks, 2006.
Other Publication
"Into a False Future." Fiction International 23 (1993): 94, 108.
"Halftime." Aethlon 11 (1994): 77, 86.
"Teleton." Fiction International 30 (1997): 100, 109.
"Well-Founded Fear." Witness 12 (1998): 35, 43.
"Relocation." Fiction International 31 (1998): 143, 152.
"Touring Test." CrossConnect 10 (1998).
"Interviewing." MondoGreco 1 (1999): 40, 52.
"Replacement." Aethlon 17 (1999): 59, 64.
"Liquidation." Writing on Water (2001): 189, 204.
Electronic Journal
"Terminal Tours." [Electronic version].
"False Pretenses, Parasites, and Monsters." 11 (2001).
Peer Reviewed Publications
"The Blind Leading the Blind: Wright's Native Son." CLA Journal 13 (1970): 315, 20.
"The Poet as Dog in Paterson." Twentieth Century Literature 16 (1970): 97, 108.
"Essential Opposition: The Novels of Anthony Burgess." Critique 12 (1971): 77, 94.
"A Case of Death: The Fiction of J. P. Donleavy." Contemporary Literature 12 (1971): 329, 44.
"Prufrock and the Open Road." Walt Whitman Review 17 (1971): 123, 26.
"The Onion Eaters and the Rhetoric of Donleavy's Comedy." Twentieth Century Literature 18 (1972): 167, 74.
"The Unreliability of Innocence: John Hawkes's Second Skin." Journal of Narrative Technique 3 (1973): 32, 39.
"Poe's Pym and Nabokov's Pale Fire." Notes on Contemporary Literature 3 (1973): 2, 3.
"John Barth's Floating Opera: Death and the Craft of Fiction." Texas Studies 14 (1973): 711, 30.
"John Hawkes's `Death of an Airman' and Second Skin." Notes on Contemporary Literature 4 (1974): 2, 3.
"The Eschatological Vision of Walker Percy." Renascence 26 (1974): 115, 22.
"Death and Black Humor." Critique 17 (1975): 5, 40.
"The Ascendant Eye: A Reading of The Damnation of Theron Ware." Studies in American Fiction 3 (1975): 95, 102.
"The Obsessional Fiction of Stanley Elkin." Contemporary Literature 16 (1975): 146, 62.
"Updike's Anti-Metafiction." Fiction International 4/5 (1975): 130, 132.
"Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood: The Oedipal Theme." Mississippi Quarterly 29 (1976): 197, 205.
"Walker Percy's Devil." Southern Literary Journal 10 (1977): 3, 13.
"Walker Percy's Devil." The Art of Walker Percy (1979): 157, 68.
"A Pair of Jacks." Horizon (1979): 64, 71.
"Joseph McElroy and the Art of Excess." Contemporary Literature 21 (1980): 15, 37.
"The Best American Fiction." Lone Star Review (1981): 3, 8.
"Joseph Heller, Something Happened, and the Art of Excess." Studies in American Fiction 9 (1981): 245, 60.
"Missing Writers." Horizon (1981): 48, 52.
"Missing Writers." L.A. Herald Examiner (1981).
"William Gaddis, JR, and the Art of Excess." Modern Fiction Studies 27 (1981): 587, 600.
"Avant-Garde Mastery." TriQuarterly 53 (1982): 259, 67.
"Robert Coover, The Public Burning, and the Art of Excess." Critique 23 (1982): 5, 28.
"Post-Modern Mastery." Delta (1983): 99, 111.
"Don DeLillo, Ratner's Star, and the Art of Excess." Markham Review 14 (1985): 27, 32.
"Deconstructing the Logos: Don DeLillo's End Zone." Modern Fiction Studies 33 (1987): 105, 23.
"Opening Up Joseph McElroy's The Letter Left to Me." Review of Contemporary Fiction 10 (1990): 258, 267.
"The Prodigious Fiction of Richard Powers, William Vollmann, and David Foster Wallace." Critique 38 (1996): 12, 37.
"Two on One: The Universal Basketball Zone." Aethlon 21 (2003).
Book Chapter
"Contemporary Novelists." Ed. Don DeLillo, Stanley Elkin, and Joseph McElroy. St. Martin's Press, 1982.
"Plus." Introduction. Carroll and Graf, 1987. v, x.
"Contemporary Novelists." St. Martin's Press, 1995.
Review
Jonathan Franzen. "The Corrections." American Book Review. (2002).
Richard Ford. "A Multitude of Sins." American Book Review. (2002).
Charlotte Hobson. "Black Earth City." American Book Review. (2002).
Victor Pelevin. "Homo Zapiens." American Book Review. (2002).
Paul Greenberg. "Leaving Katya." American Book Review. (2002).
Peter Elbling. "The Food Taster." American Book Review. (2002).
Arthur Phillips. "Prague." American Book Review. (2002).
Milan Kundera. "Ignorance." American Book Review. (2002).
William Gaddis. "Agape, Agape." American Book Review. (2002).
William Gaddis. "The Rush for Second Place." American Book Review. (2002).
Richard Powers. "The Time of Our Singing." American Book Review. (2003).
Don DeLillo. "Cosmopolis." American Book Review. (2003).
Ludmilla Ulitskaya. "Medea and Her Children." Greekworks. (2003).
Panos Karnezis. "Little Infamies." Greekworks. (2003).
Norman Rush. "Mortals." American Book Review. (2003).
Melanie Wallace. "Blue Horse Dreaming." Greekworks. (2004).
Panos Karnezis. "The Maze." Greekworks. (2004).
George Sarrinikolaou. "Facing Athens." Greekworks. (2004).
Robert Newman. "The Fountain at the Center of the World." American Book Review. (2004).
Orhan Pamuk. "Snow." Greekworks. (2004).
William T. Vollmann. "Europe Central." New York Times Book Review. (2005).
Dean Bakopoulos. "Please Don’t Come Back from the Moon." Greekworks. (2005).
Jonathan Safran Foer. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." American Book Review. (2005).
Stephen Wright. "Amalgamation Polka." American Book Review. (2006).
Daniel Kehlmann. "Measuring the World." New York Times Book Review. (2006).
Thomas Pynchon. "Against the Day." Book Forum. (2006).
Matt Ruff. "Bad Monkeys." Book Forum. (2007).
Keywords
Contemporary American Fiction, American Literature