Ebenbach, David Harris 1973(?)–

views updated

Ebenbach, David Harris 1973(?)–

PERSONAL: Born c. 1973, in Philadelphia, PA.

ADDRESSES: Home—Montclair, NJ. Agent—c/o Author Mail, University of Pittsburgh Press, Eureka Bldg., 5th Fl., 3400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15260. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA, adjunct professor of psychology; has also worked as a freelance editor.

AWARDS, HONORS: Drue Heinz Literature Prize, 2005.

WRITINGS:

Between Camelots (short stories), University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 2005.

Contributor of short stories to periodicals, including Denver Quarterly, Beloit Fiction Journal, and Crazyhorse. Poetry has appeared in Phoebe, Stickman Review, and Arbutus.

SIDELIGHTS: David Harris Ebenbach's first book, Between Camelots, is a collection of short stories focusing on people and their need for companionship. Many of the stories deal with younger protagonists who are looking for love and companionship or trying to deal with their failed romances. In the title story, for example, Paul goes out to a bar one night after being stood up on a blind date. He eventually begins a conversation with someone whose philosophy of life is that people are constantly looking for a Camelot that does not exist and that trying to develop true friends and find real love is doomed to failure. In another story, a young man who has just been dumped by his girlfriend attends a Thanksgiving dinner with old college friends only to find that he can barely eat the vegetarian fare. The author also writes about women dealing with difficult relationships, whether it be their lovers or other members of their families. In one story, for example, a character named Cathy uses alcohol to deal with unsatisfying relationships with her daughter and her mother. Other stories focus on relationships between teacher and students and between a brother and his distressed sibling. A Kirkus Reviews contributor commented that the author's "landscape is dominated by individuals struggling to continue in the face of relationships failed, failing or stillborn." The reviewer added, "Ebenbach is a smoothly effective writer, his style low-key, realistic, unexperimental." In Publishers Weekly a contributor noted that the author "does a fine job of exploring his characters' longing for connection."