Chris Crutcher
Copied from http://www.bdd.com/teacher/crut.html
CHRIS CRUTHCER WILL NOT BE THE LTLA GUEST AUTHOR FOR THE LTLA 1999 CONVENTION due to CONFLICTS
Chris Crutcher's dad was an Air Force pilot, and his parents were "just
passing through" Dayton, Ohio,
when Chris was born on July 17, 1946. Crutcher claims his parents "were in
Cascade before I got dry," referring to Cascade, Idaho, the small lumber and
logging town of about 950 people, where he was raised.
As a youth, ALAN award-winning and six-time ALA award-winning author Chris
Crutcher was not an outstanding student. He attributes his academic
non-achievements to having an older brother who was "real bright. He was the
valedictorian of the class, and I don't think he got anything under an A minus
the whole time he was in high school. I got a good picture of what that was
like and decided I didn't want anything to do with it."
Not many people, least of all anyone connected with his education, would have
imagined that Crutcher would ever become a writer. Though both of his parents
were voracious readers, reading was not one of Chris' favorite pastimes. In
fact, he read a grand total of one book from cover to cover during his entire
four years of high school. When it came to writing book reports, he invented
titles for reports, as well as stories to go with them, and often got his
authors from the pages of the Boise telephone directory. He also copied from
his brother. Many times, Chris would "take one of his [brother's] book reports
and misspell a few words, take it `down' a few notches, and turn it in."
After high school, Crutcher attended Eastern Washington State College where he
earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology/sociology. Chris admits he
naively thought he could just turn up at the college of his choice on opening
day and register. Upon learning in senior year that applications were
necessary, "I ran down to the library. All the college catalogs were either
black or blue, and Eastern's was red, so I took it."
After graduation, he roamed around the country with a friend for a year. Then
he went back to school for a teaching certificate. He spent nearly ten years
in Oakland, California, as Director of a K-12 alternative school for inner-city
kids. In 1980, Crutcher moved back to Washington and settled in
Spokane, where he now works as a
child and family therapist in a mental health center, focusing on child-abuse
cases.
"I didn't start writing until I was 35. It's hard to imagine my life not
writing. I love it. There's really a part of it that's connection. When
you're watching somebody read your material and they smile and nod, you know
you've found that place where your experience and their experience match, even
though they aren't the same exact experience. Any time I write something and
you say, "Yah,' boy, it's a kick!"
Chris Crutcher's novels are a reflection of real life as he sees it. As in
real life, his novels combine humor with difficult and serious situations. He
draws heavily on his own experiences and on elements that have surrounded his
life. For example, the tiny lumber town of Cascade, Idaho, where Crutcher grew
up became the fictional village of Trout, Idaho, in his novel Running
Loose. His experiences working for the alternative school for inner-city
kids in Oakland formed the basis of The Crazy Horse Electric Game. And
the emphasis on swimming in Stotan! comes directly from Crutcher's own
involvement in this sport in college.
His book Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes was praised by School Library
Journal in a starred review as "a masterpiece by an award-winning
novelist." In this darkly funny, suspenseful novel about friendship, a
high-school senior tries to help his badly scarred best friend, Sarah Byrnes,
deal with a horrific event in her past.
author fun facts
July 17 in Dayton, Ohio
Education
Eastern Washington State College
Currently lives
Spokane, Washington
Previous jobs
Teacher, school director, therapist (children and family), lifeguard
maintenance man, pre-stress concrete bridge beam construction, gas station
attendant
Favorite...
...foods: anything that's not green
...clothes to wear: Levi's, sweatshirts, and t-shirts
...colors: blue, brown, and all the others
...books: The Things They Carried, The Color Purple, The Prince of Tides, The
Deep End of the Ocean, Cider House Rules, Breakfast of Champions, Catch-22,
Semi Tough, The Watsons Go to Birmingham --
1963
Inspiration for writing
To tell good stories
If you would like to ask Chris Crutcher a question of your own, send email to
stotan717@aol.com.