Charles Morley Baxter (born May 13, 1947) is an American novelist, essayist, and poet.

Baxter was born inMinneapolis, Minnesota, to John and Mary Barber (Eaton) Baxter. He graduated fromMacalester College inSaint Paul in 1969. In 1974 he received his PhD in English from theUniversity at Buffalo with a thesis onDjuna Barnes,Malcolm Lowry, andNathanael West.^[1]

Baxter taught high school inPinconning, Michigan for a year before beginning his university teaching career atWayne State University inDetroit, Michigan. He then moved to theUniversity of Michigan, where for many years he directed the Creative Writing MFA program. He was a visiting professor of creative writing at theUniversity of Iowa and atStanford. He taught at theUniversity of Minnesota and in theWarren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. He retired in 2020.

He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985.^[2] His short story "Snow" was included inThe Norton Anthology of Contemporary Fiction edited in 1998 byR. V. Cassill andJoyce Carol Oates. He received thePEN/Malamud Award in 2021 for Excellence in the Short Story.^[3]

He married teacher Martha Ann Hauser in 1976, and has a son.^[1] Baxter and Hauser are separated.^[4]

• First Light (1987). An eminent astrophysicist and her brother, a small-town Buick salesman, discover how they grew so far apart and the bonds of love that still keep them together.
• Shadow Play (1993). As his wife does gymnastics and magic tricks, his crazy mother invents her own vocabulary, and his aunt writes her own version of the Bible, Five Oaks Assistant City Manager Wyatt Palmer tries to live a normal life and nearly succeeds, but...
• The Feast of Love (2000) (Pantheon Books), a reimaginedMidsummer Night's Dream, a story told through the eyes of several different people.^[5] Nominated for theNational Book Award. Afilm version of the book, starringMorgan Freeman,Fred Ward andGreg Kinnear and directed byRobert Benton, was released in 2007.
• Saul and Patsy (2003). A teacher's marriage and identity are threatened by a dangerously obsessed teenage boy at his school.
• The Soul Thief (2008). A graduate student's complicated relationships lead to a disturbing case of identity theft, which ultimately leads the man to wonder if he really is who he thinks he is.^[6]
• The Sun Collective (2020, Pantheon Books). The lives of two very different couples—one retired, one in their twenties—intersect in Minneapolis around an anti-capitalist collective arguing for revolution, as an underground group of extremists wage war on the homeless.^[7]
• Blood Test (2024) (Pantheon), Brock Hobson, an insurance salesman and Sunday-school teacher, finds his equilibrium disturbed by the results of a predictive blood test.^[8]

• Harmony of the World (1984). Winner of theAssociated Writing Programs Award.
• Through the Safety Net (1985)
• A Relative Stranger (1990)
• Believers (1997)
• Gryphon: New and Selected Stories (2011)^[9]
• There's Something I Want You to Do: Stories (February 2015)^[10]

• Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction (1997)
• The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot (2007). Winner of the 2008 Minnesota Book Award for General Non-fiction.
• Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature (2022)

• Chameleon (1970)
• The South Dakota Guidebook (1974)
• Imaginary Paintings (1989)

• The Business of Memory (1999)
• Best New American Voices 2001 (2001)
• Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life (2001)
• A William Maxwell Portrait: Memories and Appreciations (2004)

• Greasley, Philip A. (2001). Dictionary of Midwestern Literature Volume One: The Authors. Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 54.ISBN 0-253-33609-0.

• Charles Baxter's official website
• Interview with the author at Powells.com
• Interview with Charles Baxter at website of Department of English at the University of Minnesota
• Interview with the author at Pif Magazine.
• Interview with Charles Baxter, author ofThe Sun Collective at theWorld Socialist Web Site

• 1947 births
• American book editors
• 20th-century American novelists
• 20th-century American male writers
• Novelists from Minnesota
• Living people
• University at Buffalo alumni
• Writers from Minneapolis
• Wayne State University faculty
• Macalester College alumni
• Warren Wilson College faculty
• 21st-century American novelists
• American male novelists
• University of Michigan faculty
• American male essayists
• American male short story writers
• 20th-century American short story writers
• 21st-century American short story writers
• 20th-century American essayists
• 21st-century American essayists
• 21st-century American male writers
• Novelists from Michigan
• PEN/Malamud Award winners

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