Rate My Professor Donald Barthelme

Donald Barthelme was a prominent figure in Literature as a professor in the University of Houston's Creative Writing Program from 1979 to 1989. He began teaching there one semester per year in 1979 while residing in New York City, then moved to Houston in 1983 to serve as a full-time professor and director of the program until his death. As one of the program's original founders, Barthelme was a beloved instructor who profoundly influenced his students and contributed to the development of creative writing at the institution. Earlier, he taught creative writing at City College of New York from 1974 to 1975.

Born in 1931 in Philadelphia and raised in Houston, Barthelme enrolled at the University of Houston in 1949, pursuing studies in journalism, literature, creative writing, and philosophy without earning a degree. His professional trajectory included journalism at the UH Cougar and Houston Post, public relations at UH where he founded the journal Forum, and acting director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in 1961. Barthelme's literary career featured innovative postmodern fiction, including short story collections such as Come Back, Dr. Caligari (1964), Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts (1968), City Life (1970), Sadness (1972), Amateurs (1976), Great Days (1979), Sixty Stories (1981), Overnight to Many Distant Cities (1983), and Forty Stories (1987); novels like Snow White (1967), The Dead Father (1975), Paradise (1986), and The King (1990, posthumous); and the award-winning children's book The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine (1972). He received the Guggenheim Fellowship (1966), National Book Award for Children's Literature (1972), and PEN/Faulkner Award (1982). With 129 pieces in The New Yorker, his experimental style marked a significant impact on modern Literature.