Biography: C.B. Murphy C. B. Murphy is a writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He studied writing with Mark Wisniewski (contributor to 2003 Best Short Stories edited by Salman Rushdie), Linda Lightsey Rice (Southern Exposure), Ian Leask (The Wounded), and Melissa Bank (The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing). In 2005, he received first prize for fiction at the Southhampton College Writers Workshop, judged by Billy Collins (Poetry 180), Matthew Klam (Sam the Cat), and Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes). An excerpt from CUTE EATS CUTE was published as a short story in Ellipsis Magazine. For several years, Murphy was a cartoonist for The Chicago Reader, which ran his weekly comic strip, "C. B. Murphy.” The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art selected his book—January is Alien Registration Month—for its permanent Artists’ Books collection. His artwork and illustrations include, The Second Mongolian Invasion, Nuclear Pup, and Masonic Kabbalah Circus, all of which are in the University of Cincinnati collection. Murphy’s short films have screened across the U.S. including at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Willis Gallery in Detroit. Over the course of his professional career, Murphy was a commodities trader, industrial metals salesman, product development manager, international sales manager, and ideation consultant. Working for the Chicago-based Selfix company as a Product Development Manager, International Sales manufacturer and importer of household items, he designed prototype products, traveling to Asia to develop the company’s import and sales programs. During the late ‘80s, he worked for select Fortune 500 companies as a contractor in various capacities. Murphy studied a variety of subjects, including experimental film and poetry with Richard Grossinger, (Planet Medicine), and anthropology at the University of Michigan. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in perceptual geography from the University of Minnesota, where he studied under Yi-Fu Tuan (Escapism, The Good Life). Currently writing his second novel entitled, The End of Men, Murphy also volunteers as an Assistant Art Instructor for Level-4 offenders at Stillwater Prison. He resides with his wife and two sons in the river valley town of Marine on Saint Croix, Minnesota.
I heard a line recently... who said it? Patty Smith on NPR talking about her new book on Mapplethorpe. She said when we create, we "animate God." I'm not totally sure what that means theologically, but I resonate with it. When I create I feel close to something which I could say is the purpose or purposeless of our being here on the earth. In addition to writing I paint and make masks, mostly for myself. I also like the idea that one writes if one "has to write" and also the idea that certain stories are "given" to you and all you have to do is write them down. Try to do it well. My Jungian guy says English has a hard time validating the "third voice" the one that says "it just came to me." Apparently other languages are less shy about this. English seems to want to make sure we know we're "in charge" of the creation which any creator knows is of course not true.
Alice Munro Coetzee Denis Johnson (current favorite) Ian McEwan (like early stuff the best and "Enduring Love") like a lot of the "40s" writers: James Salter, Patricia Highsmith, Graham Greene. And 50s writers like Cheever and Carver. Prior to the 60s writing was more respectable and you could make a living out of writing literary fiction. Now you have to teach. Oi vey, I say.
Welcome, C.B.!!!
Welcome, C.B.!!!