David Leavitt is an American novelist, short story writer, and biographer.
11 Facts About David Leavitt
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In 2000, David Leavitt moved to Gainesville, Florida, and became a member of the Creative Writing faculty at the University of Florida as well as the founder and editor of the literary journal Subtropics.
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David Leavitt, who is gay, has frequently explored gay issues in his works.
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David Leavitt found this theme, and its suggestion that homoerotic fulfillment was reserved for the exceptionally beautiful young men, intrusive.
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David Leavitt has been criticized for writing too quickly, which he attributes to early experiences with death convincing him that his life as a writer would be short.
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David Leavitt's work has been considered minimalist as well as part of the literary Brat Pack, but he has made "a fierce effort to disassociate" himself from both.
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David Leavitt considers his works too long, emotional and descriptive to be minimalist.
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David Leavitt has been influenced by John Cheever, Alice Munro, Cynthia Ozick, Joseph Roth, W G Sebald, and Grace Paley, whom he credits for teaching him the importance of humble experiences in great fiction.
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In 1995, Houghton Mifflin published a revised version with a preface by David Leavitt addressing the controversy.
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In "Courage in the Telling: The Critical Rise and Fall of David Leavitt", Drew Patrick Shannon argues that the critical backlash that accompanied Spender's suit "allowed [critics] to reinforce the boundaries between gay and mainstream literature that Leavitt had previously crossed".
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Two of David Leavitt's novels have been filmed: The Lost Language of Cranes was directed by Nigel Finch and The Page Turner was directed by Ventura Pons.