Daniel Mason

Not to be confused with Daniel Masson.

For the American composer, see Daniel Gregory Mason.

Daniel Mason (born c. 1976) is an American novelist and physician. He is the author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country and North Woods.

Biography

He was raised in Palo Alto, California, and received a BA in biology from Harvard University, later graduating from the UCSF School of Medicine.^[1]

He wrote his first novel, The Piano Tuner (2002), while still a medical student. It was later the basis for a 2004 opera of the same name (composed by Nigel Osborne to a libretto by Amanda Holden).^[2] Mason's second novel, A Far Country, was published in March 2007.^[3] North Woods was published in 2023. His work has been published in 28 countries.^[4] He is married to the novelist Sara Houghteling.^[5] In May 2020, Mason was the recipient of the US$50,000 Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize.^[6] In 2024 he received a PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for North Woods.

Mason is a psychiatrist affiliated with Stanford Hospital, and teaches literature at Stanford University.^[7]

North Woods was longlisted in 2025 for the International Dublin Literary Award.^[8]

Books

• The Piano Tuner (2002)
• A Far Country (2007)
• Death of the Pugilist, or The Famous Battle of Jacob Burke & Blindman McGraw (2008)^[9]
• The Winter Soldier (2018)
• A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth (2020)
• North Woods (2023)

See also

• Physician writer