| Charles Bock | |
| Birth Place: | Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Novelist |
| Genre: | Contemporary fiction |
Charles Bock (born 1969) is an American writer whose debut novel Beautiful Children (published by Random House) was selected by The New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year for 2008,[1] and won the 2009 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction[2] from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Bock was born and raised in Las Vegas, which served as the setting for Beautiful Children. He comes from a family of pawnbrokers who have operated shops in Downtown Las Vegas for more than 30 years. On his website, he reflects upon his upbringing as a source of inspiration for the novel:
Bock earned a Master's of Fine Arts in fiction and literature from Bennington College and has taught fiction at the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City. He is a 2009 recipient of the Silver Pen Award (Nevada Writers Hall of Fame), which was established in 1996 to recognize mid-career writers who have already shown substantial achievement.[3]
In 2009, Bock's first wife, Diana Colbert, was diagnosed with leukemia. The couple's daughter, Lily Starr, was six months old at the time. Following a pair of bone marrow transplants, Diana Colbert died in December 2011, three days before Lily Starr's third birthday.[4] He subsequently married writer Leslie Jamison, with whom he also has a daughter.[5] They divorced in 2020[6] and share custody of their daughter.[7]
Bock's first novel Beautiful Children is about the interwoven lives of several characters in Las Vegas. The story focuses on the issue of homeless teenage runaways. Young Newell has A.D.D. and his overbearing mother Lorraine is not too keen on him hanging out with his older friend Kenny. The Girl With the Shaved Head is looking to fit in with some questionable characters that she just met on the Las Vegas Strip. Pony Boy has not always been the best boyfriend and lover to his stripper girlfriend Cheri. Comic book writer Bing Beiderbixxe is just in Vegas for the weekend. These characters' lives intersect in this unflinching tale about lost innocence.
Bock's second novel, Alice & Oliver, is based on his late wife Diana Joy Colbert and her illness.[8] The novel follows a character battling cancer.[9]