Russell Banks was born in Massachusetts in 1940 and died at his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in January 2023.
He was the author of 21 works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone, Cloudsplitter, and, most recently, Lost Memory of Skin, as well as five short-story collections.
Two of his novels, The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction, were made into award-winning motion pictures.
Banks was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is past President of the International Parliament of Writers, as well as the founding President of the Cities of Refuge North America.
He was the Howard G. B. Clarke University Professor of Humanities, Emeritus, at Princeton and served as New York State Author from 2004-2008.
Russell Banks was a participant in the 2006 World Voices Festival and several other PEN America events and outreach programs.