Gary Krist (writer)
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Gary Michael Krist (born 1957) is an American writer of fiction, nonfiction, travel journalism, and literary criticism. Before turning to narrative nonfiction with The White Cascade (2007), a book about the 1910 Wellington avalanche, City of Scoundrels (2012), about Chicago's tragic summer of 1919, and Empire of Sin (2014), about the reform wars in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, Krist wrote three novels--Bad Chemistry (1998), Chaos Theory (2000), and Extravagance (2002). He has also written two short story collections--The Garden State (1988) and Bone by Bone (1994). His most recent books are The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles (2018) and Trespassers at the Golden Gate: A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco (2025).
Career
He has been a frequent book reviewer for The New York Times Book Review, Salon, and The Washington Post Book World. His satire pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Outlook section, and Newsday, and his stories, articles, and travel pieces have been featured in National Geographic Traveler, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, Playboy, The New Republic, and Esquire, and on National Public Radio's Selected Shorts. His short stories have also been anthologized in such collections as Men Seeking Women, Writers' Harvest 2, and Best American Mystery Stories.
He has been the recipient of The Stephen Crane Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Lowell Thomas Gold Medal for Travel Journalism, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. "Empire of Sin" was named one of the top ten books of 2014 by The Washington Post and Library Journal. Krist has been awarded a 2020-2021 Public Scholar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support the research for Trespassers at the Golden Gate, about the early history of San Francisco.
Life
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Krist is a graduate of Princeton University. In 1979–80, he studied literature at the Universitaet Konstanz (Germany) on a Fulbright Scholarship. The author has been profiled in The New York Times Book Review (November 6, 1988) and the Style section of The Washington Post (February 25, 2007).
Krist and his wife live in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Bibliography
- Novels and story collections
- The Garden State New York : Vintage Books, 1988. Template:ISBN, Template:Catalog lookup link
- Bone by Bone New York Harcourt Brace, 1994. Template:ISBN, Template:Catalog lookup link
- Bad Chemistry New York: Random House, 1998. Template:ISBN, Template:Catalog lookup link
- Chaos Theory New York : Jove Books, 2001. Template:ISBN, Template:Catalog lookup link
- Extravagance New York : Broadway Books, 2002. Template:ISBN, Template:Catalog lookup link
- Nonfiction
- The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2007. Template:ISBN, Template:Catalog lookup link
- City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster that Gave Birth to Modern Chicago New York: Broadway Books, 2012. Template:ISBN, Template:Catalog lookup link
- Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans New York: Broadway Books, 2014. Template:Catalog lookup link
- The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles New York: Crown Publishers, 2018. Template:ISBN, Template:Catalog lookup link
- Trespassers at the Golden Gate: A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco New York: Crown Publishers, 2025. Template:ISBN, Template:Catalog lookup link
External links
- Gary Krist's website
- The White Cascade website
- Interview with Gary Krist about 'The White Cascade'
- NPR Interview with Gary Krist about 'City of Scoundrels'
- [1] Dining With Strangers interview with Gary Krist about 'Empire of Sin'
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- 1957 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American novelists
- 21st-century American novelists
- American male journalists
- American literary critics
- American male novelists
- American travel writers
- Writers from Bethesda, Maryland
- Writers from Jersey City, New Jersey
- Princeton University alumni
- Novelists from Maryland
- American male short story writers
- 20th-century American short story writers
- 21st-century American short story writers
- 20th-century American journalists
- 20th-century American male writers
- 21st-century American male writers
- Novelists from New Jersey
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers