Charles William Goyen (April 24, 1915 – August 30, 1983) was an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, editor, and teacher.

In World War II he served as an officer aboard an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific, where he began work on one of his most important and critically acclaimed books, The House of Breath.

During his life he could not completely support himself through his writing, so at various times he took work as an editor and teacher at several prominent universities.

Major themes in his work include home and family, place, time, sexuality, isolation, and memory.

[2] During World War II he served as an officer on the aircraft carrier USS Casablanca in the South Pacific.

[5] From 1955 to 1960, he taught creative writing at the New School of Social Research, which provided opportunities for European travel and literary productivity.

[5] Biographers have noted his sometimes excessive drinking, sometimes fragile mental state and ambiguous sexual orientation.

[11] In the early 1950s for about ten years, William Goyen and artist Joseph Glasco lived and traveled in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Europe together as partners.

Goyen began writing what would become his first book, The House of Breath, when he served on an aircraft carrier during World War II.

During this time he was also working on a translation from French of Albert Cossery's Les fainéants dans la vallée fertile (The Lazy Ones), which would be published in 1952.

[8] In 1950, his first book, The House of Breath, was received with critical acclaim and led to support through fellowships and awards.

About this time his work was being translated into German and French by Ernst Robert Curtius and Maurice Coindreau in Europe, where it remains in print in several languages[5] and where he is highly regarded.

In 1958 he revised the screenplay and wrote song lyrics for the Paul Newman film, The Left-Handed Gun.

[19] His limited readership made commercial publishers wary, and even for Arcadio, his final novel, he had to search widely for an interested firm.

A posthumous publication included Half a Look of Cain: A Fantastical Narrative, which was written in the 1950s and early 1960s and was published in 1998.

"[7] Recurring themes in Goyen's work include alienation (from self and from the world), isolation, loneliness, home and family, time, memory, spirituality, sexuality, and place.

[21] The monetary award is given annually and intended to support writers who have published at least one book of fiction, either a novel or a collection of stories.