Delbanco was born in London, England, the son of German Jewish parents Barbara and Kurt Delbanco, a businessman, art dealer, and sculptor. He was educated at Harvard University, B.A. 1963; Columbia University, M.A. 1966. He taught at Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, 1966–84, and at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1984–85. He was a visiting Professor at such institutions also as Trinity College, Williams College, Columbia University and the University of Iowa. He was director of the MFA Program, and the Hopwood Awards Program at the University of Michigan, until his retirement in 2015. He has published thirty books of fiction and non-fiction. His most recent novel is "The Years," his most recent work of non-fiction, is "Curiouser and Curiouser: Essays." In 2015 he published "The Art of Youth: Crane, Carrington, Gershwin, and the Nature of First Acts." 2016 saw publication of the Omnibus collection, "Dear Wizard: The Letters of Nicholas Delbanco and Jon Manchip White." In 2011, he republished Sherbrookes. This book brings his trilogy of novels between the covers of a single book. Shebrookes is not simply a reissue of the three original novels together, but a revised edition of the trilogy without being a complete revision of the original story. Delbanco has served as Chair of the Fiction Panel for the National Book Awards, and as a judge for, among other contests, the PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1980, and twice, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship.
Personal life
Delbanco is the brother of Thomas L. Delbanco, a physician and Harvard professor, and the social critic and historian Andrew Delbanco. He is married to Elena Greenhouse, daughter of Beaux Arts Trio cellist Bernard Greenhouse. They have two daughters: novelist and screenwriter Francesca Delbanco, and TIME magazine editor Andrea Delbanco.
In 1962, while Delbanco was a student at Harvard, he was a student in a creative writing course at Harvard Summer School taught by John Updike, author and Harvard alum. Another student in this class was Jonathan Penner. In the 1960s, Delbanco had a relationship with Carly Simon which is alluded to in her song You're So Vain.
Works
Short stories
The collection, About My Table, and Other Stories, publisher—William Morrow & Co, 1983
The collection, The Writer's Trade, and Other Stories, publisher—William Morrow & Co.
The Sincerest Form, Writing Fiction by Imitation, publisher-McGraw-Hill, 2004
Craft & Voice, an Introduction to Literature, publisher—McGraw-Hill, 2012
Reviews
In "The Count of Concord" we see a veteran novelist working at the height of his powers, pulling out every trick he's learned in the four decades since he published his first book, "The Martlet's Tale," at 23.
