David Anthony Durham
David Anthony Durham was born in New York City to parents of Caribbean descent. He grew up mostly in Maryland, but has spent the last fifteen years on the move, jumping from East to West Coast to the Rocky Mountains, and back and forth to Scotland and France several times. He currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. Or... actually, no he doesn't. He's back in New England at the moment.
He is the author of a trilogy of fantasy novels set in Acacia: The Sacred Band, The Other Lands, and The War With The Mein, as well as the historical novels The Risen, Pride of Carthage, Walk Through Darkness, and Gabriel’s Story. He’s won the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer, a Legacy Award, was a Finalist for the Prix Imaginales and has twice had his books named NY Times Notable Book of the year. His novels have been published in the UK and in French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. Three of his novels have been optioned for development as feature films.
David received an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Maryland. He has taught at the University of Maryland, the University of Massachusetts, The Colorado College, for the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, Cal State University, and at Hampshire College. He's currently on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA Program. He reviews for The Washington Post and The Raleigh News & Observer, and has served as a judge for the Pen/Faulkner Awards.
He also writes in George RR Martin's weird and wonderful Wild Cards universe. He feels like the process makes him exercise a whole new set of creative muscles, and he loves the feeling.
“To fatten a pig, a farmer will feed him well. The pig must think his life a paradise, never knowing he gorges himself so that he will be fatter for the knife later on.”
“No, I haven’t decided where to live yet.” He thought, I haven’t decided if I want to live yet.”
“This really isn’t fair,” Mena said. “What is ‘fair’?” asked one of the watchers called Devoth. “I don’t know this word.”
“The moment you begin to consider having more than someone else, you begin to fear you might end up with less than someone else.”
“Or was it just the eyes of the watcher that gave character to the world?”
“What sense does it make that one god would create all? Why would he create … rabbits. Soft and cuddly, yes? And then create foxes that hunt them down and tear them to shreds? Why do that? That god is no god to the rabbits. He is a demon that favors their enemies. But nor does that god honor the fox, for he creates other animals bigger than it. Creates wolves. Creates you Acacians. Even you, Rialus, could kill a fox if you were lucky and had the right weapon.” “And if the creature was lame or old,” Jàfith added.”
“The wise say many things, enough to confuse the rest of us”
“I believe that if you speak from your heart each time you open your mouth, you cannot go wrong.”
“Scourge of the Betrayer is as harsh and profane as anything RichardK Morgan or Joe Abercrombie serves up. Fortunately, Saylards has the skills -and the humor - to pull it off. Snappy dialogue, political intrigue, shadycharacters, gripping action sequences, a poor guy that has no idea what he’sgotten himself into... Yeah, there’s a lot to like about this debut.”
“No, make something different from war. Don't allow your enemies to be enemies. Make them something else, because otherwise they have a power over you that they should not have. If you think in the same ways as the past, you will only get new versions of the past. Think differently. That's what I'm saying.”
“I sleep lightly and tread to keep my head out of the sea of dreams.”
“You've got to understand that the world's full of men who are little better than animals.... Problem is that a man is different from an animal. In the quiet afterward we know when we've done wrong.”
“Revenge is the easiest of emotions to understand and to manipulate.”