MILOFSKY, David 1946-

PERSONAL: Born June 11, 1946, in New York, NY; son of Bernard (a musician) and Ruth (an artist and professor) Milofsky; married; wife's name, Jaqueline, May 15, 1972 (divorced, 1989); married; second wife's name, Jean (a physician), June 9, 1990; children: Jennifer; stepchildren: Sam, Miriam. Ethnicity: "Russian/Irish." Education: University of Wisconsin—Madison, B.A., 1969, M.A., 1971; University of Massachusetts—Amherst, M.F.A., 1977. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Tennis, running, film.

ADDRESSES: Home—5041 South Florence Dr., Englewood, CO 80111. Offıce—Department of English, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1773; fax 970-491-5601. E-mail—David.Milofsky@ colostate.edu.

CAREER: University of Denver, Denver, CO, assistant professor of English, 1982-88; Colorado State University, Fort Collins, professor of English, 1988—, director of Center for Literary Publishing.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America, Associated Writing Programs, American Association of University Professors.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grants from National Endowment for the Arts; Bread Loaf fellow; MacDowell Colony fellow; Colorado Book Award, 2001, for Color of Law.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Playing from Memory, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1982, reprinted, University Press of Colorado (Niwot, CO), 1999.

Eternal People, University Press of Colorado (Niwot, CO), 1998.

Color of Law, University Press of Colorado (Boulder, CO), 2000.

A Friend of Kissinger, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 2003.

EDITOR

New Voices: Poetry and Fiction from Colorado State University (published annually), Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO), 1994, 1995.

Editor, Colorado Review, 1990—.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Managed Care, a collection of short stories.

SIDELIGHTS: As the director of the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University and the editor of the Colorado Review, novelist David Milofsky has been an active proponent of literary craftsmanship in fiction and poetry. Both the Center and the Colorado Review have helped new writers get into print alongside established, prize-winning poets and story authors. Milofsky once told a contributor to the Denver Post: "In publishing nationally there is a tremendous emphasis on commercial fiction and, of course, poetry isn't published at all. I really feel the future of serious literature in this country is dependent on the continued existence of literary magazines."

Milofsky's novels range widely in subject matter but have generally met with positive reviews and substantial sales. His debut work, Playing from Memory, concerns a concert musician stricken with multiple sclerosis. Eternal People is an historical novel set in nineteenth-century Wisconsin that follows young Yosl Abramovitz as he journeys from Manhattan to a communal farm peopled by expatriate Russians both Jewish and gentile. Denver Post correspondent Kelly Milner Halls found the book "full of heart, passion and humanistic observations" and praised Milofsky for his "broad, descriptive prowess and dedication to both ethnic, geographic and turn-of-the-century, period authenticity."

Milofsky won the Colorado Book Award for his novel Color of Law, based upon the true story of a young black man's murder at the hands of two corrupt policemen. In the novel, as in real life, one of the policemen confesses to the crime decades later, setting off a political firestorm. In the Denver Post, William Porter noted that the novel "is populated with memorable characters. While they're not types, they are readily identifiable, especially to any reader remotely privy to the not-so-niceties of municipal politics." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reviewer Jim Price found the work "gritty and unabashed, and . . . unsettling to some native Milwaukee readers who remember the times and the tensions all too well."

A Friend of Kissinger is also set in Milwaukee. In the course of this novel, Danny Meyer recalls his struggles with adolescence and the eccentric adults he knew while growing up in the late 1960s. The title implies a political plot line, but in fact Henry Kissinger only enters the story obliquely in a peripheral, if important, twist. William Dieter, in the Rocky Mountain News, contended that A Friend of Kissinger "proves again that [Milofsky] is a first-rate storyteller." Dieter added that the novel "remains a superbly crafted mix of adult insight and boyish wonder."

Milofsky once told CA: "Writing has been the principal activity in my life since I was in college, This, of course, predated any publishing activity and, indeed, publishing has never been the primary factor in anything I've written. I believe that this is true of most real writers. This doesn't mean that publishing isn't important or that one doesn't value being published, it only means that the writing comes first."

"As far as influences are concerned, my primary literary influences are classical (for example, Dickens, Thackeray, and Hemingway). Personally, however, I am primarily influenced by people and events around me. Most of what I write has some kind of autobiographical element, though this may not always be obvious. Eternal People, for example, involved Russian immigrants at the turn of the twentieth century, which obviously has little to do with my life. On the other hand, my grandfather did immigrate then, and I've tried to put myself into his life in this way, imagining myself into that situation. Similarly, one can only write about love, danger, fear by drawing on one's own life experiences in these areas.

"My writing process is simple. I sit down and write with a fountain pen on lined paper. I then transfer the draft to a computer, print out, and rewrite that. First drafts are always hand-written; I distrust computers for first drafts, though they are enormously useful for revision and editing.

"In general, I have been inspired by people whom I've known who have shown unusual courage in the face of adversity, such as chronic illness, discrimination, et cetera. What interests me as a writer is a character facing a difficult problem and then finding a way to surmount or deal with it. What the character does is not as important as his (or her) character in facing what life has thrown in his face. I often write people I know because that is what I know best. There is nothing intrinsically important about my family or friends, and often they do not feel I've treated them very well, but they are all I have as material. I agree with Chekhov that it's important to love one's characters, so I seldom, if ever, write about someone I despise. If I do, I try to find redeeming qualities in people who otherwise show little that is good. This is a challenge, but it is the matrix of my writing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Denver Post, December 28, 1997, Ed Will, "CSU at Forefront of War for Fiction," p. F1; December 20, 1998, Kelly Milner Halls, "Colorado Author Defies Stereotype," p. G1; October 22, 2000, William Porter, "Old Mistakes Come Back to Haunt Bad Cops," p. G5.

Library Journal, November 15, 2000, Kerie L. Nickel, review of Color of Law, p. 96.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 22, 2000, Jim Price, "Midwest Passages," p. 9; April 8, 2001, Geeta Sharma-Jensen, "Fine Crime Story Hits Close to Home," p. 6.

Publishers Weekly, December 5, 1980, Barbara A. Bannon, review of Playing from Memory, p. 43; October 5, 1998, review of Eternal People, p. 82.

Rocky Mountain News, October 1, 2000, Marty Meitus, "An Arresting Glimpse of Racism," p. 2E; March 14, 2003, William Dieter, "Vivid Characters at Heart of Coming-of-Age Tale," p. 28D.*