Antrim is the author of three novels -- "Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World" (1993), ''The Hundred Brothers" (1997), and "The Verificationist" (2000) -- and a memoir, "The Afterlife" (2006). Sometimes his work is built around a central conceit: "The Hundred Brothers" sets 100 brothers in the same room. And yet his style has evolved in unexpected, naturalist directions. He told the New Yorker that with "The Afterlife," "I got more and more attracted to the idea of stories that flowed, or that seemed to flow, fairly naturally from psychological and relational situations." The son of a strong-willed, self-destructive mother who divorced his English literature professor father, Antrim now teaches writing himself at Columbia. "I think probably that I failed my way toward writing," he tells the MacArthur Foundation in a video posted on its site. "The fellowship -- it's staggering."