At seventeen he changed his middle name to Coraghessan (pronounced "kuh-RAGG-issun"), a name from his mother's side of the family. His father, a schoolbus driver, and his mother, a secretary, both died of complications from alcoholism before Boyle was thirty. Although his family did not have much money, Boyle was pampered and encouraged to obtain a good education. By his own report his youth was spent "hanging out" and taking a lot of drugs. He began writing in college with an absurdist one-act play about a young boy eaten by an alligator--except for his foot, to which his family builds a shrine in the living room. When the professor and class laughed and applauded, Boyle concluded writing was "a pretty good gig." After graduating from the State University of New York at Potsdam in 1968, Boyle taught high-school English for several years to keep from being drafted. During this period he published "The OD & Hepatitis RR or Bust" in
The North American Review (Fall 1972) and, primarily on the basis of that story, was admitted into the University of Iowa Workshop.
This is a free page. This page contains 172 words. This
biography contains 5,406 words (approx. 18 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our T(homas) Coraghessan Boyle Access Pass.
