KUHLMAN, Evan

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

Home—OH.

CAREER:

Writer. Worked as a restaurant manager and a reporter.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Short-Story Award for New Writers; journalism prizes.

WRITINGS:

Wolf Boy (novel), Shaye Areheart Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of play, The Bread Man. Contributor to periodicals, including Glimmer Train, Notre Dame Review, Salt Hill, Madison Review, Third Coast, and Vincent Brothers Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

Evan Kuhlman's Wolf Boy contains a graphic novel within a standard novel. The plot concerns a death within the Harrelson family, and its aftermath. Francis Harrelson, the eldest child, is killed in a car accident on his way to an academic conference. His girlfriend, Jasmine, survives the crash, and she and the Harrelsons all enter a dark period of mourning. Despite the subject matter, Kulhman manages to present his characters "with a deft combination of black humor and pathos that is always pulling itself up just short of bathetic sentimentality.… Light ironies save the riskiest passages from shameless tear-jerking, while Kuhlman generally seems quite sincere in drawing the emotional confusion" of this family, stated Madison Smartt Bell in the Boston Globe.

Francis's father, Gene, withdraws emotionally from his wife, Helen, and their two other children, Crispy and Stephen. Helen is haunted by guilt and lives in a state of numbness. Crispy tries to run away to join her favorite singer, and Stephen responds to his brother's death by developing a crush on Jasmine, and writing his own superhero comic, "The Adventures of Wolf Boy." He uses his drawings as a way to transfer the family's problems to another dimension where magical solutions might be possible. Kuhlman collaborated with graphic artists Brendan and Brian Fraim to draw the "Wolf Boy" sections of the novel.

Wolf Boy is "an impressive debut" that is "technically ambitious and emotionally sincere," concluded Bell. A reviewer for Agony judged the graphic-novel content of the book to be "strong enough that I wish there were more of it," and added: "Kuhlman also exceeded my expectations with the reality of his novel, the centeredness and density of his writing." Another recommendation was offered by M.L. Van Valkenburgh in the Charleston City Paper Online: "Wolf Boy is everything you could ask for from a story, and more. It is one of those rare books that reminds you of every beautifully poignant moment you've ever taken for granted, one that takes you back to your childhood—the real one, with pain and bitterness and confusion and joy and surprise all wrapped up in every day."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Boston Globe, July 16, 2006, Madison Smartt Bell, review of Wolf Boy.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2006, review of Wolf Boy, p. 103.

Publishers Weekly, January 16, 2006, review of Wolf Boy, p. 36.

ONLINE

Agony,http://trashotron.com/agony/ (May 3, 2006), review of Wolf Boy.

Bookloons,http://www.bookloons.com/ (September 26, 2006), Ricki Marking-Camuto, review of Wolf Boy.

Charleston City Paper Online,http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/ (July 5, 2006), M.L. Van Valkenburgh, review of Wolf Boy.

Compulsive Reader,http://www.compulsivereader.com/ (September 25, 2006), Jacob Malewitz, interview with Evan Kuhlman and review of Wolf Boy.

Evan Kuhlman Home Page,http://www.evankuhlman.com (November, 2006).

Flak, http://www.flakmag.com/ (September 25, 2006), review of Wolf Boy.

Miami University Department of English Web site,http://www.units.muohio.edu/english/ (September 25, 2006), Steven Paul Lansky, interview with Evan Kuhlman.

Wolf Boy Web site,http://www.wolfboynovel.com (September 25, 2006).