Charles Dickinson is an American novelist and short story writer. He worked as a longtime Chicago newspaper journalist while pursuing his fiction writing career. His debut novel, Waltz in Marathon, was published in 1983 and won the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award. His second novel, Crows, published in 1985, won the top prize of the Friends of American Writers. Dickinson published six novels and a story collection between 1983 and 2012. His short fiction appeared in prominent publications including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and Esquire. Two of his stories were selected for inclusion in the O. Henry Award annual collections.