Richard Currey
Biographical Information
Richard Currey was born in Parkersburg, WV, October 19, 1949. He joined the US Navy, Hospital Corps, serving from 1968-1972 with duty tours in the Caribbean and Vietnam. Currey left the service with as petty officer, second-class. After leaving the service, Richard Currey attended Howard University, completing the MEDEX/Physician Assistant Program in 1979. Also in 1979, he won the Santa Fe Festival of the Arts Poetry Prize for "The Dead Mare's Fable." A year later, Currey published his first prose work, Crossing Over: A Vietnam Journal. Crossing Over is a collection of short stories and poems based on Currey's experiences in Vietnam, a collection he had begun work on shortly after the end of his military service. The collection, filled with beautiful and terrifying images of the human experience of war, was nominated for the 1980 Pulitzer Prize and named a best of the small presses selection. Currey continued to gain recognition and awards of the next several years, including two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and recognition from the Vietnam Veterans of America for his contributions to the literature of the Vietnam War.
Richard Currey published his first novel, Fatal Light, in 1988. Fatal Light is the haunting story of a young man who "emerges from his sleepy West Virginia hometown into the soul-searing terrain of the Vietnam War." The novel was short-listed for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Novel and won the Vietnam Veterans of America's Excellence in the Arts Award. He published a second story collection in 1990, The Wars of Heaven. The collection, which contains winners of both the O. Henry and Pushcart Awards, returns Currey to his West Virginia childhood and draws on the experiences of his own family. Stories from the collection were adapted for the New York Stage and aired on National Public Radio.
He did not publish another major work until 1997, when his long-awaited second novel, Lost Highway, was released. Lost Highway is the story of Sapper Reeves, a World War II veteran and gifted musician, as he travels through Appalachia. One Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that Lost Highway "offers brief glimpses of a banjo player's path - though tragic - to fame and self-respect. A coal miner's son born poor but proud enough to take up the banjo to ease the worry of his widowed mother, Sapper Reeves is cut from the rough, durable broadcloth of American legend."
Currey, who has also worked as a physician's assistant, has also written numerous essays relating to health care and medical ethics. He currently lives in New Mexico.
Critical Responses
Critics have praised Richard Currey as a distinctive voice in modern American fiction. His four major works have received excellent critical reviews, and he has won numerous literary awards.
His first major work, Crossing Over, was selected as best title of the year by Library Journal. The London Sunday Times called Richard Currey "a dazzling writer, almost making you shield your eyes as you read" and commented that "Currey achieves a stark immediacy that makes you wince." Fatal Light, the Vietnam novel which followed Crossing Over, also received excellent reviews. James Lee Burke called the novel "Homeric and stunning" and Joyce Carol Oates described it as one of the most outstanding novels of the Vietnam era. Commenting on Lost Highway, the Dallas Morning News said that Currey takes us "where only the best fiction can go."
Works Published
- Crossing Over: A Vietnam Journal
- Fatal Light
- The Wars of Heaven
- Lost Highway
Selected Bibliography
Davis, Jenny. The Wars of Heaven (book review). The New York Times Book Review. April 8, 1990. p27, col1.
Kilpatrick, Thomas L. Fatal Light (book reviews). Library Journal, May 15, 1988. 113(9), 91.
Pogrebin, Robin. Ambition, a ludicrous concept. The New York Times Book Review, July 3, 1988. p8, col1.
Shafarzek, Susan. Crossing Over (book review). Library Journal, December 15, 1980. 105, 2525.
Willobee, Sondra B.Lost Highway (book reviews). The Christian Century, August 26, 1998. 115(23), 802.
Author Website
www.richardcurrey.net