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Barthelme

American  
[bahr-thuhl-mey, ‑tl-mee] / ˈbɑr θəlˌmeɪ, ‑tl mi /

noun

  1. Donald, 1931–89, U.S. short-story writer and novelist.

  2. his brother Frederick, born 1943, U.S. short-story writer and novelist.


Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

His college, however, was filled with such famous authors as Michel Foucault, John Barth, Donald Barthelme and J.M.

From Los Angeles Times Feb. 15, 2026

He was the smirking successor of Vonnegut and Barthelme, a big-idea humorist with some postmodern acrobatics tossed in.

From Washington Post Oct. 21, 2022

Can we compare him to gumbo, his style a stew of influences encompassing such unlikely pairings as William Faulkner and Samuel Beckett, Norman Mailer and Grace Paley, William Trevor and Donald Barthelme?

From New York Times Nov. 6, 2021

Barthelme found the semicolon “ugly as a tick on a dog’s belly.”

From The New Yorker Jul. 15, 2019

The writings of Donald Barthelme, Kurt Vonnegut, and John Barthe are not casual reading, for sheer enjoyment or excitement.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin

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