wanted to send me [Wood's] book and I said, 'Please don’t.' [...] I told them, 'Please don’t bother to send it.' I didn’t want to have to throw it out. There’s nothing to the man." Awards He was a recipient of the 2010/2011 Berlin Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Berlin. Personal life In 1992 Wood married Claire Messud, an American novelist. They reside in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and have a daughter, Livia, and a son, Lucian. Selected works Notes Wood has written the following: "I have made a home in the United States, but it is not quite Home. For instance, I have no desire to become an American citizen. Recently, when I arrived at Boston, the immigration officer commented on the length of time I've held a Green Card. 'A Green Card is usually considered a path to citizenship,' he said, a sentiment both irritatingly reproving and movingly patriotic. I mumbled something about how he was perfectly correct, and left it at that. [...] The poet and novelist Patrick McGuinness, in his forthcoming book Other People's Countries (itself a rich analysis of home and homelessness; McGuinness is half-Irish and half-Belgian) quotes Simenon, who was asked why he didn't change his nationality, 'the way successful francophone Belgians often did'. Simenon replied: 'There was no reason for me to be born Belgian, so there’s no reason for me to stop being Belgian.' I wanted to say something similar, less wittily, to the immigration officer: precisely because I don't need to become an American citizen, to take citizenship would seem flippant; leave its benefits for those who need a new land." References External links James Wood at The Guardian James Wood at the London Review of Books James Wood at The New Republic James Wood at The New Yorker Text and video of keynote speech at the 2009 Griffin Poetry Prize ceremony 1965 births Living people Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge English expatriates in the United States English people of Scottish descent Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Harvard University faculty Kenyon College faculty English essayists English male novelists Literary critics of English English literary critics The Guardian people The New Republic people The New Yorker critics The New Yorker staff writers People educated at the Chorister School, Durham People educated at Eton College People from Durham, England