Robert Bausch -

Creative Writing Workshop

Winner of  the 2009  Dos Passos  Prize for  Literature, Robert Bausch says,

he has been a writer all his life.  Born in Georgia, at the end of World War II, Bausch was raised in the Washington, D.C., area. In his early years he supported himself by working as a salesman - of automobiles, appliance, and hardware - and a taxi driver, waiter, production planner, and library assistant. After a stint in the military, where he was teaching survival, he resumed his education at George Mason University in Virginia. He worked his way through college, earning a BA and MA in English literature, and an MFA in creative writing, all at George Mason.

The citation that accompanied Bausch's Dos Passos Prize, awarded annually to an under-recognized author, lauded him for: "a rare and beautiful wayfaring imagination, one that has led him to demonstrate a simply astounding fictive range; for his ability as a literary ventriloquist, throwing his voice convincingly into so many different particularly American characters...; for the courage of his storyteller's heart as he creates not only these strikingly different characters but also risking and succeeding in wildly different ways of telling each story...; for his fearless explorations of human failure and guilt as well as the sparkling possibility of forgiveness and redemption; for a body of work both substantive and haunting...."

Bausch published his first novel, On the Way Home, in 1982. Newsweek called the novel “compelling” and it was favorably reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and other publications. Only two years later, in 1984, his second novel, The Lives of Riley Chance, was published and was praised by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. The book was later translated into Swedish. Published in 1991, Bausch's third novel, Almighty Me, also received accolades from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other major newspapers. This novel was translated into German. The rights to the book were sold to Hollywood Films, a division of Disney Studios. Almighty Me was later released in film version, uncredited, as Bruce Almighty.

In 1995, Bausch published a collection of short stories called The White Rooster and Other Stories, which received the Dictionary of Literary Biography's top literary award as " the most distinguished work of fiction" for that year.

Bausch's fourth novel, A Hole in the Earth, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a Washington Post Favorite Book of the Year, upon its publication by Harcourt in 2001. The novel was inspired by the author's father, Robert Carl Bausch, a successful Washington businessman, who died unexpectedly in 1995 at the age of 79. Commenting on his novel, Bausch has said, “I tried to put everything my father believed in that book...out of respect for him and because, as my narrator comes to see, he was right about most things.”  Bausch likes to say he comes from a “functional” family, one that was happy and remained close. In addition to four other brothers and sisters, Baush has an identical twin brother, the novelist Richard Bausch. Their parents, Helen and Robert Bausch, were staunch Catholics and life-time Democrats, who were happily married for fifty-five years.

In October 2002, Bausch's fifth novel, The Gypsy Man, was published by Harcourt, followed by a paperback edition under the imprint of Harvest Books. His next novel, Out of Season, was published in the fall of 2005 and, once again, Bausch's fiction was honored with the coveted designation of Favorite Book of the Year by the Washington Post. On the faculty of  Northern Virginia Community College since 1976, Bausch has been a college professor, teaching creative writing, American literature, world literature, humanities, philosophy, and expository writing, for most of his professional career. He has also taught at the University of Virginia, American University, George Mason University, and Johns Hopkins University. Bausch was a director on the board of the Pen-Faulkner Foundation and now serves happily as an advisor to the literary magazine "Peeks and Valleys," which publishes new writing from some of the best and most promising new young practitioners of fiction and poetry.

Writers' Workshop