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Hi.  My name is Patrick Stuart and I’m a current state government worker who used to do architecture stuff (see 'Architecture') but now does other stuff (see 'Writing').  I live in Columbus, Ohio, cohabitating with some other carbon-based life forms (see below) and performing acts of daily existence that are pretty typical of someone living in Columbus, Ohio.

 

Other personal stuff:

 

Married:  yes.

 

Progeny:  dos niños.

 

Pets: un gato y un perro.

 

#1 snack food:  pretzels with peanut butter.

 

Celebrity I used to get compared to:  Bruce Springsteen

 

Celebrity I now get compared to:  Patrick Stewart

 

Favorite two words: ‘if’ (two simple letters representing the antithetical attributes of that hairline fracture-slash-yawning chasm dividing reality and fiction), and ‘titillate’ (because it sounds dirty).

 

Favorite architect quote: “Form follows function.” (Louis Sullivan)

 

Favorite author quote: “If a gun's shown in the first act, it should be used by the third act.”  (Anton Chekhov)

 

Favorite writerly advice: “Read good shit.” (Molly Friedrich, famous literary agent)

 

A list of books that have stuck in my head: 

  • A Confederacy of Dunces (by John Kennedy Toole)

  • Stephen Florida (by Gabe Habash)

  • Geek Love (by Katherine Dunn)

  • The City & the City (by China Mieville)

  • The Orphan Master’s Son (by Adam Johnson)

  • Mailman (by J. Robert Lennon)

  • About Grace and Cloud Cuckoo Land (by Anthony Doerr)

  • The Passenger and Stella Maris (by Cormac McCarthy)

  • Opioid Indiana (by Brian Allen Carr)

  • Cherry (by Nico Walker)

  • Godsend (by John Wray)

  • Knockemstiff (by Donald Ray Pollock)

  • Station Eleven (by Emily St. John Mandel)

  • The Ministry for the Future (by Kim Stanley Robinson)

  • Terrestrial History (by Joe Mungo Reed)

  • The Rest is Memory (by Lily Tuck)

  • Life and Fate (by Vasily Grossman)

  • Guns, Germs and Steel (by Jared Diamond)

  • The Ten Equations That Rule the World (David Sumpter)

  • How the World Really Works (Vaclav Smil)

 

A (very) abbreviated list of pretty darn good books:

  • When the Elephants Dance (by Tess Uriza Holthe)

  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (by Mark Haddon)

  • City of Thieves (by David Benioff)

  • Chemistry and Rental House (by Weike Wang)

  • Temple Folk (by Aaliyah Bilal)

  • Drown (by Junot Diaz)

  • Severance (by Ling Ma)

  • Beautiful Ruins (by Jess Walter)

  • The Incarnations (by Susan Barker)

  • The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (by David Mitchell)

  • The Shipping News (by Annie Proulx)

  • Gould's Book of Fish (by Richard Flanagan)

  • Venomous Lumpsucker (by Ned Beauman)

  • Glorious Exploits (by Ferdia Lennon)

  • Tyll (by Daniel Kehlmann)

  • Martyr (by Kaveh Akbar)

  • The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet (by Reif Larsen)

  • A Manual For Cleaning Women (by Lucia Berlin)

  • The White Tiger (by Aravind Adiga)

  • Life of Pi (by Yann Martel)

  • The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns (by Khaled Hosseini)

  • What is the What and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (by Dave Eggers)

  • I Do Not Come To You by Chance (by Adaobi Tricia Nwuabani)

  • Lamb and Fool (by Christopher Moore)

  • A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (by Marina Lewycka)

  • The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley (by Jeremy Massey)

  • A Pleasure and a Calling (by Phil Hogan)

  • Redeployment (by Phil Klay)

  • Crow Fair (by Thomas McGuane)

  • What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (by Lesley Nneka Arimah)

  • Look Who's Back (by Timur Vermes)

  • Being Dead (by Jim Crace)

  • Nothing to See Here (by Kevin Wilson)

  • The Sympathizer (by Viet Thanh Nguyen)

  • This is How You Lose the Time War (by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone)

  • The Future (by Naomi Alderman)

  • Orbital (by Samantha Harvey)

  • HHhH (by Laurent Binet)

  • The Road (by Cormac McCarthy)

  • The Trees and James (by Percival Everett)

  • Shit Cassandra Saw (by Gwen E. Kirby)

  • Bliss Montage (by Ling Ma)

  • Twilight Territory (by Andrew X. Pham)

  • Bomber (by Len Deighton)

  • Winter in Madrid (by C.J. Sansom)

  • The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (by Jonas Jonasson)

  • Giant of the Senate (by Al Franken)

  • Born A Crime (by Trevor Noah)

  • The Places In Between (by Rory Stewart)

  • Hopping Freight Trains in America (by Duffy Littlejohn)

  • A People's History of the United States (by Howard Zinn) 

  • Poverty, By America (by Matthew Desmond)

  • Maid (by Stephanie Land)

  • Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (by Caitlin Doughty)

  • The Long Haul (by Finn Murphy)

  • In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs (by Christopher de Bellaigue)

  • Notes on a Foreign Country (Suzy Hansen)

  • The Aquariums of Pyongyang (by Chol-hwan Kang)

  • The World Without Us (by Alan Weisman)

  • How the World Really Works (by Vaclav Smil)

  • Country Driving (by Peter Hessler)

  • In Manchuria (by Michael Meyer)

  • Eniac (by Scott McCartney)

  • The World Without Us (by Alan Weisman)

  • This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends (by Nicole Perlroth)

  • The Biggest Bluff (Maria Konnikova)

  • Maid (by Stephanie Land)

  • Stiff (by Mary Roach)

  • Autumn of the Black Snake (by William Hogeland)

  • Man is Wolf to Man (by Janusz Bardach)

  • My Father the Pornographer (by Chris Offutt)

  • Dispatches (by Michael Herr) 

  • There There (by Tommy Orange, audio version)

  • Born A Crime (by Trevor Noah, audio version)

  • 'Tis (by Frank McCourt, audio version)

  • Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (by Sarah Vowell, audio version)

  • The Black Monday Murders (Vol. I & II, graphic novels, misc. contributors)

  • Lazarus series (graphic novels, by Rucka, Lark, Arcas and others)

  • Pax Romana (graphic novel, by Jonathan Hickman)

  • Maus (Vol. I & II, graphic novels, by Art Spiegelman)

  • Berlin (graphic novel, by Jason Lutes)

  • Einstein in Kafkaland (graphic novel, by Ken Krimstein)

  • The Best We Could Do (graphic novel, by Thi Bui)

  • Such A Lovely Little War (graphic novel, by Marcelino Truong)

  • Rusty Brown (graphic novel, by Chris Ware)

  • Sabrina and Beverly (graphic novels, by Nick Drnaso)

  • Ducks (graphic novel, by Kate Beaton)

  • Kent State, Trashed and My Friend Dahmer (graphic novels, by Derf Backderf)

 

Good writing stuff/fascinating author backstories:

  • Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve (by Ben Blatt)

  • 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might (by Pat Walsh)

  • My Friend Dahmer (by Derf Backderf)

  • John Kennedy Toole

  • William Gay

  • Lucia Berlin

  • Donald Ray Pollock

  • Nico Walker

 

Best title:  And To My Nephew Albert I Leave the Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Poker Game (by David Forrest)

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Authors I’ve liked at least twice:

  • Annie Proulx

  • Adam Johnson

  • Jess Walter

  • Kim Stanley Robinson

  • Emily St. John Mandel

  • Anthony Doerr

  • Mark Haddon

  • Daniel Silva (Gabriel Allon series)

  • Alan Furst (WWII spy series)

  • Philip Kerr (Bernie Gunther series)

  • Owen Matthews (Black Sun trilogy)

  • Mick Herron (Slough House series)

  • Martha Wells (Murderbot series)

  • Herman Wouk

  • Donald Ray Pollock

  • William Gay

  • Daniel Woodrell

  • Chris Offutt

  • Isaac Asimov

  • Frank Herbert

  • Martin Cruz Smith

  • Junot Diaz 

  • Michael Perry

  • Peter Hessler

  • Bill Bryson

  • Caitlin Doughty

  • George Saunders

  • Kevin Wilson

  • Zoe Ferraris (Katya Hijazi series)

  • John Burdett (Bangkok series)

  • Attica Locke (Highway 59 series)

  • Al Franken

  • Rory Stewart

  • Robert Harris

  • Cormac McCarthy

  • Percival Everett

  • Weike Wang

  • Michael Pollan

  • Tom Gauld (comics)

  • Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes comics)

  • Gary Larson (Far Side comics)

  • Adrian Tomine (graphic novels)

  • Derf Backderf (graphic novels)

  • Jacques Tardi (graphic novels)

 

Authors I wish I liked more:  Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, Mary Roach

 

Famous dead authors I’d like to hang with:  Anthony Bourdain, A.J. Liebling, Oscar Wilde, Katherine Dunn

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Contact info/places I hide out:

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