Ian Frazier (born 1951 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American writer and humorist. His books include Great Plains and Coyote v. Acme.
Biography Frazier grew up in Hudson, Ohio."Humorist Ian Frazier, who grew up in Hudson, Ohio, wins another Thurber award ". October 6, 2009. The Plain Dealer. Retrieved via Cleveland.com, November 10, 2018. His father, David Frazier, was a chemist,"Ian Frazier." Contemporary Authors Online. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2017. Retrieved via Biography In Context database, November 10, 2018. who worked for Sohio.Lambert, Craig (September/October 2008). "Seriously Funny: Ian Frazier combines an historian's discipline with an original comic mind ". Harvard Magazine. harvardmagazine.com. Retrieved November 10, 2018.Ian Frazier, Family. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994. p. 256. His mother, Peggy, was a teacher, as well as an amateur actor and director, who performed in and directed plays in local Ohio theaters.Ian Frazier, Family. p. 26. He graduated from Western Reserve Academy in 1969 and from Harvard University in 1973.
Writing career Frazier wrote the 1989 non-fiction history Great Plains and 2010's non-fiction travelogue Travels in Siberia. He works as a writer and humorist for The New Yorker.
The New York Times critic James Gorman described Frazier's 1996 humor collection Coyote v. Acme as the occasion for "irrepressible laughter in the reader". In the title piece, Wile E. Coyote is suing Acme Corporation, the manufacturer of products such as explosives and rocket-propelled devices purchased by the coyote to aid in hunting the Road Runner; these products always backfire disastrously. The story served as the basis for the film Coyote vs. Acme, which was shelved in 2023 by Warner Bros. Discovery. In March 2025, American independent film distributor Ketchup Entertainment acquired the worldwide distribution rights to the film; it released theatrically on August 28, 2026.
Gorman rates Frazier's first collection, 1986's Dating Your Mom, as "one of the best collections of humor ever published".James Gorman, "Beep-Beep!", The New York Times, June 23, 1996.
Personal life His wife Jacqueline Carey and their daughter Cora are also writers.
Awards 1989: Whiting Award 1997: Thurber Prize for American Humor, for essay collection Coyote v. Acme 2009: Thurber Prize for American Humor, for essay collection Lamentations of the FatherHartig, Jean (2010). "Thurber House." Poets & Writers Magazine. Vol. 38, no. 2. p. 133 f. Retrieved via Literature Resource Center database, November 10, 2018.
Bibliography
References
External links
Ian Frazier articles for Outside Magazine Ian Frazier articles at Byliner Ian Frazier on NPR for Travels in SIberia Ian Frazier at FSG Profile at The Whiting Foundation
Interview with Ian Frazier on WFMU's "The Speakeasy with Dorian" (RealAudio) Review of Gone to New York Select the RealAudio link by "LAMENTATIONS OF A FATHER" at time 28:42 to hear Ian Frazier read his "Laws Concerning Food and Drink; Household Principles; Lamentations of the Father" on the January 24, 1998 Prairie Home Companion broadcast. The famous mock-legal complaint Coyote v. Acme, to which a lawyer made this reply Lambert, Craig (September–October 2008). "Seriously Funny: Ian Frazier combines an historian's discipline with an original comic mind". Harvard Magazine.