Pete Dexter

Pete Dexter (born July 22, 1943) is an American novelist known for his gritty, darkly comic fiction often set in blighted urban and Southern environments. His most notable works include Paris Trout (1988), which won the National Book Award for Fiction, Deadwood (1986), God's Pocket (1983), and The Paperboy (1995), the latter earning the 1996 PEN Center USA Literary Award. A former newspaper columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and Sacramento Bee, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of South Dakota in 2010.