Josip Novakovich

Josip Novakovich (Croatian: Novaković) is a Croatian American writer.

His grandparents had immigrated from the Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to Cleveland, Ohio, and, after the First World War, his grandfather returned to what had become Yugoslavia. Josip Novakovich was born (in 1956) and grew up in the Central Croatian town of Daruvar, studied medicine at the University of Novi Sad. At the age of 20 he left Yugoslavia, continuing his education at Vassar College (B.A.), Yale University (M.Div.), and the University of Texas, Austin (M.A.).

He has published a novel (April Fool's Day), three short story collections (Yolk, Salvation and Other Disasters, Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust), two collections of narrative essays (Apricots from Chernobyl, Plum Brandy: Croatian Journey) and two textbooks (Writing Fiction Step by Step, Fiction Writer's Workshop).

Novakovich has taught at Nebraska Indian Community College, Bard College, Moorhead State University, Antioch University Los Angeles, creative writing at the University of Cincinnati, and Pennsylvania State University. He is currently in Montreal teaching at Concordia University, where his son Joseph attends McGill University.

Mr. Novakovich is the recipient of the Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, two fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, panelist of National Endowment of the Arts, an award from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He was anthologized in Best American Poetry, Pushcart Prize (three times), and O.Henry Prize Stories. Kirkus Review finds Novakovich as "the best American shorts stories writer of the decade".

His works were published in almost all top writers' magazines in the USA (Ploughshares, New York Times Magazine, Double Take, The Threepenny Review etc.)

External links

• Josip Novakovich at the Pennsylvania State University Department of English
• Cincinnati Magazine, Dec 1998, p. 57
• http://www.matis.hr/zbornici/2001/Text/Text4-1.htm Hrvatski iseljenički zbornik 2001., Vladimir P. Goss: Hrvatski duh u engleskom ruhu (summary in English CROATIAN SPIRIT IN ENGLISH ATTIRE )