Lowell Mick White | |
|---|---|
| Born | Marion, Ohio, U.S. |
| Citizenship | United States of America |
| Education | B.A., University of Texas at Austin M.A., Texas A&M University Ph.D., Texas A&M University |
| Occupations |
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| Employer | Texas A&M University |
| Known for | Fiction set in Texas; Dobie-Paisano Fellowship (1998) |
| Notable work | Long Time Ago Good (2009) That Demon Life (2009) |
| Awards | Dobie-Paisano Fellowship (1998) Gival Press Novel Award |
Lowell Mick White is an American fiction writer living in Texas whose work focuses on the changing relationships between physical place and the individual.
Born in Marion, Ohio, White grew up in Mankato, Minnesota, and Coxs Mills, West Virginia, and settled in Austin, Texas. After working a variety of jobs—including stints as a shade-tree salesman, bureaucrat, and cab driver—White received a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Texas A&M University.
In 1998, White was awarded the Dobie-Paisano Fellowship by the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Institute of Letters, a six-month residency at a ranch formerly belonging to writer J. Frank Dobie, an honor that has previously gone to such Texas writers as Sandra Cisneros, Dagoberto Gilb, and Oscar Casares. White, who had been working as a cab driver at the time of the award, said of his time at Paisano Ranch, "Basically, beyond the simple validation that the Dobie Paisano fellowship brought me—and validation and recognition are certainly an important part of the fellowship—my fellowship brought me the time and space I needed at that point in my life, the time I needed to read and think and get my writing moving."
White's first book, Long Time Ago Good: Sunset Dreams from Austin and Beyond, a story collection, was a finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters' Steven Turner Award for First Fiction. One reviewer said, “This short story collection takes a look at the changing city in its many incarnations. White chronicles its move from high to low tech as well as its transmogrification from a quaint, ‘everything’s local’ mentality to the strip-malled, suburban city it has become.”
White's novel, That Demon Life, won the Gival Press Novel Award and was nominated for the National Book Award. Of That Demon Life, novelist Larry Heinemann said, White shows “...a sly and witty and wry appreciation for the ordinary horrors of everyday life." A profile of White in the Austin American-Statesman said that the novel is "full of colorful, sketchy and disreputable characters you probably wouldn't want running your Brownie scout meeting." Another reviewer stated, “That Demon Life convinces me of two things: Austin will always be changing, and Austin will always be the same. White's novel captures much of the freedom and fun of the old Austin while also entertaining readers with a recognizable Austin—one that has evolved even in the last decade."
White currently teaches English at Texas A&M University, and is Writer-in-Residence at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas.