Editing Paul Auster (section)

==Career==
After graduating from [[Columbia University]] with B.A. and M.A. degrees (English, Comparative Literature) in 1970,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/mar_apr06/cover.html|title=Columbia College Today|website=www.college.columbia.edu}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.wusf.org/2024-05-01/bestselling-novelist-paul-auster-author-of-the-new-york-trilogy-dies-at-77|title=Bestselling novelist Paul Auster, author of 'The New York Trilogy,' dies at 77 &#124; WUSF|date=May 1, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240501101020/https://www.wusf.org/2024-05-01/bestselling-novelist-paul-auster-author-of-the-new-york-trilogy-dies-at-77 |archive-date=May 1, 2024 }}</ref> he moved to Paris where, among other jobs, he tried to earn a living translating French literature.<ref name=":0" /> After returning to the United States in 1974, he continued to work on his poems, essays, and translations of French writers, such as [[Stéphane Mallarmé]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hurezanu |first=Daniela |date=2006 |title=A Tomb for Anatole by Stéphane Mallarmé: Translated by Paul Auster. New York: New Directions, ISBN 0-811215-938 |journal=Translation Review |language=en |volume=71 |issue=1 |pages=67–70 |doi=10.1080/07374836.2006.10523938 |issn=0737-4836}}</ref> and [[Joseph Joubert]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Joubert |first=Joseph |title=The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert |year=2005 |edition=1 |series=NYRB Classics |translator-last=Auster |translator-first=Paul}}</ref><ref name="bigthink">{{cite web | url=https://bigthink.com/people/paulauster/ | title=Big Think: Paul Auster Interview}}</ref> His work as a translator led to the publication in 1982 of ''The Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry'', which he edited.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://poets.org/book/random-house-book-twentieth-century-french-poetry|title=The Random House Book of Twentieth Century French Poetry|first=Academy of American|last=Poets|website=Poets.org}}</ref>

[[File:Paul Auster, Salman Rushdie and Shimon Peres.jpg|thumb|Auster greeting Israeli President [[Shimon Peres]] with [[Salman Rushdie]] and [[Caro Llewellyn]] in 2008]]
Following the appearance in 1982 of his acclaimed debut work, a memoir titled ''[[The Invention of Solitude]]'', Auster gained renown for a series of three loosely connected novellas published collectively as ''[[The New York Trilogy]]'' (1987),<ref name="auto6">{{Cite web|url=https://tertulia.com/editorial-list/https://tertulia.com/article/guide-to-reading-books-of-paul-auster|title=A Guide to Reading the Work of Paul Auster (1947-2024)|website=Tertulia}}</ref> and is often cited as his most widely known work to the general reading public.<ref name="bigthink"/>

Although ''The New York Trilogy'' gives a nod to the detective genre, they are not conventional detective stories organized around solving mysteries. Rather, Auster uses the detective form to address questions of identity, space, language, and literature, creating his own distinctively [[Postmodernism|postmodern]] form in the process.<ref name="auto6"/> Auster disagrees with this analysis, because he believes that "the ''Trilogy'' grows directly out of ''The Invention of Solitude''".<ref>Mallia, Joseph. "[http://bombsite.com/issues/23/articles/1062 "Paul Auster"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007150730/http://bombsite.com/issues/23/articles/1062 |date=October 7, 2011}}, "[[BOMB Magazine]]", Spring, 1988.</ref>

Similar to the themes explored in ''The New York Trilogy'', the search for identity and personal meaning continued to permeate the three novels Auster published in quick succession in the late 1980s. Whether writing about the relationships between people caught in the flux of an uncertain future and uncertain identity (''[[In the Country of Last Things]]'' [1987] and ''[[Moon Palace]]'' [1989]), or the role of coincidence and random events in our lives (''[[The Music of Chance]]'' [1990]), Auster was steadily increasing his readership and popularity.<ref name="auto6"/>

During the 1990s Auster published three more novels, but he increasingly turned his attention to script writing and filmmaking by way of his screenplay and directorial collaborations with [[Wayne Wang]] on ''[[Smoke (film)|Smoke]]'' (which won Auster the [[Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay]]) and ''[[Blue in the Face]]''. He also directed the movie [[Lulu on the Bridge]] (1998).<ref name="indiewire">{{cite news|last=Garrett |first=Stephan |title=Seven Questions for ''Lulu on the Bridge'' Filmmaker Paul Auster |work=Indiewire |date=May 21, 1998 |url=http://www.indiewire.com/article/seven_questions_for_lulu_on_the_bridge_filmmaker_paul_auster |accessdate=February 23, 2012}}</ref>{{NoteTag|Prior to meeting Wayne Wong who first invited Auster to collaborate on all aspects of the filmmaking process, Auster did have some limited involvement in the film adaptation of his novel ''[[The Music of Chance (film)|The Music of Chance]]'' via consultation and a small cameo appearance (uncredited) toward the end of the film}}

After a steadfast commitment to filmmaking during the late 1990s, Auster decided to turn his attention once again to writing novels, memoirs, and essays during the remaining two decades of his life. Between 2002 and 2024, Auster published nine novels, two memoirs, an 800-page biography of [[Stephen Crane]] (''Burning Boy''), and a sustained [[jeremiad]] (Auster calls it a "political pamphlet")<ref name="conversation"/> on the long, unending history of gun violence in America (''Bloodbath Nation'').<ref name="auto6"/> Eight of the final ten novels Auster published during his lifetime (from 1999 to 2023) received nominations for the International Dublin Award, and Auster's 2017 novel ''[[4 3 2 1 (novel)|4 3 2 1]]'' was shortlisted for the [[Booker Prize|Man Booker Prize]].<ref name=2017shortlist>{{cite web|title=Man Booker Prize 2017: shortlist makes room for debuts alongside big names|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/13/man-booker-prize-2017-shortlist-debuts-big-names-saunders-mozley-fridlund-smith-auster|website=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=13 September 2017|date=13 September 2017}}</ref>

Auster was on the [[PEN American Center]] board of trustees from 2004 to 2009<ref>{{Cite web|title = Board of Trustees: 2004–2005 {{!}} PEN American Center|url = http://www.pen.org/board-trustees-2004-2005|website = www.pen.org|date = August 28, 2012|access-date = 15 January 2016|archive-date = January 15, 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200115184618/https://pen.org/board-trustees-2004-2005/|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = Board of Trustees: 2008–2009 {{!}} PEN American Center|url = http://www.pen.org/board-trustees-2008-2009|website = www.pen.org|date = August 28, 2012|access-date = 15 January 2016|archive-date = March 4, 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304110526/http://www.pen.org/board-trustees-2008-2009|url-status = live}}</ref> and its vice president from 2005 through 2007.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Board of Trustees: 2005–2006 {{!}} PEN American Center|url = http://www.pen.org/board-trustees-2005-2006|website = www.pen.org|date = August 28, 2012|access-date = 15 January 2016|archive-date = January 11, 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200111020631/https://pen.org/board-trustees-2005-2006/|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = Board of Trustees: 2006–2007 {{!}} PEN American Center|url = http://www.pen.org/board-trustees-2006-2007|website = www.pen.org|date = August 28, 2012|access-date = 15 January 2016|archive-date = July 8, 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150708034523/http://www.pen.org/board-trustees-2006-2007|url-status = live}}</ref>

In 2012, Auster said in an interview that he would not visit [[Turkey]], in protest at its treatment of journalists. Turkish Prime Minister [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]] replied: "As if we need you! Who cares if you come, or not?"<ref>{{cite web |agency=Associated Press in Ankara |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/01/turkish-pm-paul-auster-human-rights |title=Turkish PM criticizes US writer Paul Auster over human rights comments, Guardian, 01.02.2012 |work=The Guardian |date=March 27, 2013 |access-date=20 April 2013 |archive-date=July 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715064506/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/01/turkish-pm-paul-auster-human-rights |url-status=live }}</ref> Auster responded: "According to the latest numbers gathered by International PEN, there are nearly one hundred writers imprisoned in Turkey, not to speak of independent publishers such as [[Ragıp Zarakolu]], whose case is being closely watched by PEN Centers around the world."<ref>{{cite web |last=Itzkoff |first=Dave |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/paul-auster-responds-after-turkish-prime-minister-calls-him-an-ignorant-man/ |title=Paul Auster Responds After Turkish Prime Minister Calls Him 'an Ignorant Man', The New York Times, 01.02.2012 |date=February 2012 |location=Turkey |publisher=Artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com |access-date=20 April 2013 |archive-date=April 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130407012431/http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/paul-auster-responds-after-turkish-prime-minister-calls-him-an-ignorant-man/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Auster was willing to give Iranian translators permission to write Persian versions of his works in exchange for a small fee; Iran does not recognize international [[copyright laws]].<ref name=Dehghan>{{cite news|author=Dehghan, Saeed Kamali|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/23/why-iran-has-16-different-translations-of-one-khaled-hosseini-novel|title=Why Iran has 16 different translations of one Khaled Hosseini novel|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=2017-06-23|access-date=2018-12-25|archive-date=October 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011033230/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/23/why-iran-has-16-different-translations-of-one-khaled-hosseini-novel|url-status=live}}</ref>

One of Auster's later books, ''A Life in Words,'' was published in October 2017 by [[Seven Stories Press]]. It brought together two years of conversations with the Danish scholar I.B. Siegumfeldt about each of Auster's fiction and non-fiction works. It has been a primary source for understanding Auster's approach to his works.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539868/a-life-in-words-by-paul-auster-in-conversation-with-i-b-siegumfeldt/9781609807771/ |title=A Life in Words by Paul Auster in Conversation with I B Siegumfeldt |publisher=Penguin Random House |access-date=5 June 2017 |archive-date=November 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112182020/https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539868/a-life-in-words-by-paul-auster-in-conversation-with-i-b-siegumfeldt/9781609807771/ |url-status=live }}</ref>