Russell Earl Banks was an American writer of fiction and poetry.
As a novelist, Banks was best known for his "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters".
Banks was a member of the International Parliament of Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
On March 28, 1940, Russell Earl Banks was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and grew up "in relative poverty.
Banks, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, died Saturday in upstate New York.
Banks, who was being treated for cancer.
Banks lived part of the year in Florida, and for a time had a home in Jamaica.