“Beautifully and honestly wrought . . . a stunning portrayal of one man’s journey to redemption and transformation. This is ultimately a story of kindness and forgiveness despite the misfirings of our ever-yearning human hearts. A gorgeous and unforgettable debut.”
“[A] glowing set of stories, a book that reads like late night messages sent from a friend. This is an honest look at a man moving from punishing bad faith toward something he finally hopes is good.”
“This book is every single thing I want when I read: compassionate, hopeful, and beautifully written. David Hicks is a first-rate storyteller.”
“What happens when a man risks everything in search of a real home and big love? David Hicks shares the answer in White Plains, a thrilling and thoughtful take on what it means to live life to the fullest.”
“In David Hicks’s captivating debut, an English professor realizes he can no longer stand to live a life of quiet desperation. Comic and tender by turns, White Plains is a big-hearted novel about awakening—and reawakening—to love.”
Finalist, 2018 Colorado Book Awards
Top Ten Books of 2017 – Westword Magazine
Arapahoe Libraries’ 2018 “Village Read”
WELCOME TO THE WEBSITE OF
David Hicks
David is the author of the debut novel, White Plains, published by Conundrum Press/Bower House Books in 2017, and one of three finalists for the Colorado Book Awards (2018). Excerpts from the novel have been published as short stories in Glimmer Train, Colorado Review, Specs, Saranac Review, and South Dakota Review, along with other stellar journals.
David lives with his wife Cynthia in northeast Pennsylvania, where he directs the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University. He is represented by Victoria Skurnick of the Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR WHITE PLAINS
“What happens when a man risks everything in search of a real home and big love? David Hicks shares the answer in White Plains, a thrilling and thoughtful take on what it means to live life to the fullest.”
“In David Hicks’s captivating debut, an English professor realizes he can no longer stand to live a life of quiet desperation. Comic and tender by turns, White Plains is a big-hearted novel about awakening—and reawakening—to love.”
“…a book that reads like late night messages sent from a friend. This is an honest look at a man moving from punishing bad faith toward something he finally hopes is good.”
“He shivered violently, noting the water’s depth, its darkness. But he kept going, with smooth, careful breast strokes, the icy water bathing his body. He imagined the cells of his skin hydrating and awakening.”
WHITE PLAINS
LATEST ARTICLES FROM
The Author’s Blog
David Hicks Interviewed on WVIA’s “Art Scene” with Erika Funke
She could very well be the Best Interviewer Ever. She is certainly "The Voice" of the Northeastern PA art scene. She is Erika Funke, and she very kindly spent some time with David to discuss his writing life, his career, and his work as Director of Creative Writing at Wilkes [...]
“On first glance, David Hicks’ witty and melancholy White Plains is a novel of the academic life, in the tradition of Lodge, Amis and McCarthy, and it deserves a place in that most excellent tradition. But White Plains exceeds this subgenre and rewards us with dynamic shifts in point of view that reveal an unsparing and original look at aging through a literary life and events that seem to have a mind of their own. Hicks writes spot on spots of time covering thirty years: St. Marks, Shea Stadium, Creede, Colorado. . . . momentary stays against confusion and concentric circles of diminishing expectations. With characteristic and devastating restraint, we’re asked, “How many chances does a man get [does anyone get] to set his life straight.” The answer: read this extraordinary novel. ”
David Lazar, author of I'll Be Your Mirror: Essays and Aphor