Biography.guide
Home › People › Opinion journalist › Emile Capouya
Portrait of Emile Capouya

Emile Capouya

1925 – 2005

American essayist, writer, critic

Don't just read it — keep itBiographies to ownE-book · Audio · Video From $7 →

About Emile Capouya

Lived 1925 – 2005 (aged 80). Emile Capouya was an American opinion journalist, writer, journalist, essayist and literary critic.

Emile Capouya (August 13, 1925 – October 13, 2005) was an American essayist, critic, and writer. His book In the Sparrow Hills won the Sue Kaufman Prize of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Capouya was born in Manhattan in 1925 and grew up in the Bronx.

Life Capouya studied at Columbia University in New York City and started his working life at New Directions. From 1969 to 1981, he was Literary Editor of The Nation magazine and wrote for The New American Review, The New York Times and The Saturday Review. Capouya published the work of Ezra Pound, Tennessee Williams, Jean-Paul Sartre and James Joyce. In 1971, he was appointed associate professor of English at Baruch College, where he taught for ten years.

In 1993, he published his first book, In the Sparrow Hills, a compilation of short stories based on his time with Handelsmarine in World War II. It won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction.

In 1968, he married Keitha Capouya who is a publisher. In 1986, they founded New Amsterdam Books, publishing Literary fiction.

Literature In the Sparrow Hills, Algonquin Books 1993, Ismail Kadare, Emile Capouya: Albanian Spring: The Anatomy of Tyranny, Saqi Books 1994, Emile Capouya, Keitha Capouya: Classic English Love Poems, Hippocrene Books 1999, The Rising of the Moon, Lyons Press 2003,

Biography shop

Don’t just read it —
keep it.

Full-length biographies made to live with: read them, listen on the way to work, watch them tonight.

  • E-book
  • Audio
  • Video
Browse the shop — from $7

Instant download · yours to keep · every purchase keeps this site free

Important facts

Birth century
Nationality
Education
Columbia University
Awards
Guggenheim Fellowship; Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction

People in Emile Capouya's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Emile Capouya's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Emile Capouya?

American essayist, writer, critic (1925–2005)

When was Emile Capouya born?

Emile Capouya was born on 13 August 1925 in Manhattan.

When did Emile Capouya die?

Emile Capouya died on 13 October 2005 in New York.

What was Emile Capouya's occupation?

Emile Capouya was an opinion journalist, writer, journalist, essayist and literary critic.

What nationality was Emile Capouya?

Emile Capouya was American.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Emile Capouya

· Wikidata: Q1337161

· DBpedia: Emile Capouya

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Emile Capouya. https://biography.guide/emile-capouya/

MLA: "Emile Capouya." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/emile-capouya/.

Chicago: "Emile Capouya." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/emile-capouya/.

Data last updated: 2026-09-20 · Spot an error? Report a correction.

Page generated 2026-09-27 05:03 UTC