George Saunders
Biography
George Saunders is an American writer of short stories, essays, novellas, and children's books. Born in Amarillo, Texas, and raised in Chicago, he earned a B.S. in geophysical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1981 and an M.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University in 1988. Before his writing career took off, Saunders worked as a geophysical engineer in Sumatra, a technical writer, and a doorman, experiences that often inform the blue-collar, working-class settings and characters in his fiction. He is known for his satirical, often darkly humorous, and deeply empathetic portrayals of the struggles of ordinary people in a consumer-driven, often absurd world. He began teaching in the creative writing program at Syracuse University in 1999.
Selected Thoughts
«What I've come to believe is that if you're writing fiction, you're trying to re-create a consciousness, and that consciousness is composed of language.»
«The world has gotten too complex to be run by just good intentions. It needs specialists.»
«Kindness, it turns out, is a skill. It's a way of being alive. It's an internal thing. It's not something that's done to you. It's something you do.»
Writing Style
Saunders' writing style is characterized by its experimental nature, often employing unconventional narrative structures, idiosyncratic language, and a blend of satire, dark humor, and profound empathy. He frequently uses fragmented narratives, stream-of-consciousness, and a highly distinctive voice for each character. His prose can be both sharply witty and deeply moving, often juxtaposing the mundane with the absurd or tragic.