Southeast: Region Six

Oates, Joyce Carol

June 16, 1938 -

Place of Birth:  Lockport, NY

Place of Principle Residence:  Princeton, NJ

Biography:
  Joyce Carol Oates was born to Caroline and Frederic (tools and dye designer) Oates at Lockport, New York in 1938.  She led a working-class, rough-and-tumble childhood that she has affectionately recalled in much of her fiction.  Before learning to write, Oates told stories by drawing and painting.  When she received her typewriter at fourteen, Oates began to train herself to write novels.  She attended Syracuse University on a scholarship, during of which she won the much-desired Mademoiselle fiction contest.  In 1960 she got her B.A., and received her M.A. at the University of Wisconsin in 1961.  Oates met her husband, Raymond Smith, at Wisconsin University and the two moved to Detroit, where Oates worked at the University of Detroit, first as an instructor, then as an assistant professor.  In 1967 Oates moved to University of Windsor, where she taught English for eleven years.  During this period she wrote books at an amazing speed, averaging two to three a year.  According to Oates, this efficiency was a product of her daily routine and not viewing writing as work.  In 1978, Oates and her husband moved to Princeton University, where she works today as a writer in residence and a Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities.  She and her husband have published a literary magazine, the Ontario Review.  Soon after coming to Princeton Oates began working on the first of her gothic novels, Bellefleur.  While still in her thirties, Oates became a well-known and respected writer.

Selected Works:

         
• By the North Gate (1963)
         
• Expensive People (1967)
         
• The Wheel of Love and Other Stories (1970)
         
• Crossing the Border: Fifteen Tales (1976)
         
• A Bloodsmore Romance (1983)
         
• The Assignation (1988)
         
• We were the Mulvaneys (1996)
         
• Naughty Cherie (2008)

Awards:

         
• 1966, 1968 National Endowment for the Arts grants
         
• 1967, 1973 Guggenheim fellowship
         
• 1967, 1973 O. Henry Award, Doubleday
         
• 1968 Rosenthal Award, National Institute of Arts and Letters
         
• 1968, 1969 National Book Award nomination
         
• 1970, 1986 National Book Award
         
• 1975 Lotos Club Award of Merit
         
• 1979 American Library Association Notable Book
         
• 1980 Los Angeles Times Book Prize
         
• 1988 Literary Michigan by the Michigan Council for the Humanities
         
• 1988 St. Louis Literary Award

Critical Reception:

For The Gravedigger’s Daughter:

“This is neither a depressing story nor an uplifting one. Oates succeeds here, as she often does, in making such judgments feel simple-minded. What it all seems is true and therefore moving and somewhat terrible, but in an exhilarating way. Every aspect of the ungainly plot feels right, including its ungainliness. Resolutions fail to arrive; lost people fail to return. Flowing through and past it all, surfacing for these 600 pages, is Oates’s turbulent, cross-currented prose, with its hot upwellings and icy eddies. It’s the opposite of lapidary, and has the disadvantage of being impossible to quote effectively in a brief review, but for the enthralled reader, Oates’s water will eventually have its proverbial way with other writers’ stone.”             -  The Washington Post

“Joyce Carol Oates’s 36th novel proves that more is, sometimes, more. The Seattle Times calls it an “opus,” while The Oregonian describes it as her “masterpiece.” In a return to upstate New York, the novel, based in part on the life of Oates’s paternal grandmother, carries exceptional emotional heft. While striking Oates’s trademark dark, suspenseful notes at the start, it turns to themes of reinvention and hope as Rebecca journeys through life. The epilogue, when an elderly Rebecca pens letters to a cousin who survived the Holocaust, resounds deeply. A few reviewers cited poor writing, confusing narrative switches, and flat secondary characters, but overall, Gravedigger’s Daughter may be one of Oates’s best novels in years.”             - Bookmarks Magazine

For Blonde: A Novel:

“In the perverse manner all too typical of her singular career, Oates follows up one of her best novelslast year’s plaintive Broke Heart Blueswith one of the worst she (or any other contemporary ``serious’’ author, for that matter) has ever committed to paper. It’s a bloated, humorless fictional speculation on the life and career of Marilyn Monroe that mixes together canned US and film history, fanzine gossip, and heavy-breathing fantasy.”               - Kirkus Reviews

“Oates, for whom writing seems to be as involuntary and constant as breathing, liberates the real woman behind the mythological creature called Marilyn Monroe. In most hands, a fictional retelling of Monroe’s tragic life seems utterly unnecessary, but Oates—long an avid observer of the rise and fall of celebrities and the public’s morbid lust for vicarious violence—transforms a redundant exercise into an act of redemption.”             - Booklist

 

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
    Oates attributes Detroit to shaping the person and writer she is today.  In the Michigan Quarterly Review, she commented, “If we [Oates and her husband] had never come to the city of Detroit I would have been a writer (indeed, I had already written my first two books before coming here, aged twenty-three) but Detroit, my ‘great’ subject, made me the person I am, consequently the writer I am-for better or worse.”

 

Pacosz, Christina V.

October 12, 1946 -

Place of Birth:  Detroit, MI

Place of Principle Residence:  Kansas City, KA

Biography:
Christina V. Pacosz was born to Sophia and Walter Pacosz in Detroit, MI.  Both of her parents were working-class and Polish-American, and raised their daughter in Detroit.  Pacosz earned her BS at Wayne State University in 1970, and briefly attended Jagiellonian University in Poland.  In 1993 she was accepted in the M.F.A. Creative Writing Program at the University of Alaska.  She has written six books of poetry and her work (including both poetry, short stories, and reviews) has appeared in many publications, including the I-70 Review, Jane’s Stories III, Women Writing Across Boundaries, and Pemmican.  In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a small press book bus driver, waitress, library clerk, carpenter’s apprentice, teacher, and poet in the schools in several states.  She now lives with her husband in Kansas City where she teaches urban youth.

Selected Works:

     
• This Is Not a Place to Sing (1987)
     
• Notes From the Red Zone (1983)
     
• Shimmy Up to This Fine Mud (1976)
     
• In, A Gathering of Poets (1992)

Awards:

     
• 2003 Prairie Poets Award
     
• 1994 Achievement Award in Fiction from Now & Then

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Pacosz was born and raised in a working-class family in Detroit, MI where she experienced the social struggles of those around her.  After being educated at Wayne State University, Pacosz left Michigan, but her childhood experiences stayed in her writing.

 

 

Panagopoulos, Janie L.

December 17, 1955 -

Place of Birth:  Owosso, MI

Place of Principle Residence: Roscoe, IL and Owosso, MI

Biography:
Janie L. Panagopoulos was born to Clyde and Betty Blount in Owosso, MI.  Before starting school she could read, and in third grade started writing with the encouragement of her teacher.  She attended Jewett’s Women’s College of Business and John Wesley College and graduated with an AA degree.  Panagopoulos is a dedicated historian, spending two to five years researching for a writing project.  She started out in advertising as a freelance writer for newspapers and magazines, and has had over 1,000 articles published between 1774 and 1992.  Besides writing, Panagopoulos has taught courses in theater arts and playwriting, and has had several of her plays produced.  After being an editor for Health Horizon Magazine in 1988-1990, Panagopoulos now works with students as an online mentor and workshop leader to develop their writing.  In 1993 she published her first documentary historical fiction novel, Traders in Time.  Since then she has been granted several awards, including the Michigan Authors Award in 2000 and the Read Michigan Award in 2001.  Panagopoulos does much traveling for research, spending much time in Michigan.  Panagopoulos lives with her husband, Dennis, in Illinois.

Selected Works:

     
• Little Ship Under Full Sail: An Adventure in History (1997)
     
• Train Called Midnight (1999)
     
• Journey Back to Lumberjack Camp (1994)
     
• Runes of Isle Royale (2000)
     
• Madame Cadillac’s Ghost (2004)
     
• Faraway Home: An Orphan Train Story (2007)

Awards:

     
• 2000   Michigan Author Award
     
• Short Story Awards and “Readers Choice” Awards
     
• 2003   Must Read Award
     
• 1998   Parent & Teacher Award

Critical Reception:
Panagopoulos is a noted Michigan author, and has received several awards including the prestigious Read Michigan Award that was granted by Michigan’s Governor Engler and Michigan’s Secretary of State Candace Miller.  In addition to her awards, Panagopoulos has been nominated for many national, state, and regional awards.

Relevance of Place to Writing:
Spending an enormous amount of time on researching for novels is a part of Panagopoulos’ daily routine.  She has traveled widely across the United States, especially Michigan, to study different histories, including canoeing over 3800 miles on the Great Lakes and Canadian waterways, living with traditional Native Americans, participating in archaeological digs, dog-sledding, snow-shoeing, and traveling with a wagon train.  Her writing dedicated to Michigan has been acknowledged by receiving the Michigan Authors Award and the Read Michigan Award.

 

 

Parker, Virginia Bailey

September 25, 1947 -

Place of Birth:  Chillicothe, OH

Place of Principle Residence:  Canton, MI

Biography:
Virginia Bailey Parker was born to Virginia and John Bailey in Chillicothe, Ohio.  She graduated with an AA degree from Henry Ford Community College in 1967 and a BA in history from Michigan State University in 1969.  After earning her MS degree in historic preservation at Eastern Michigan University, Parker took additional graduate credits at the University of Michigan on heritage interpretation.  Parker started off as a history teacher at Crestwood High School before becoming a professional writer and lecturer.  She has led many workshops, including business and writing workshops at Ford Motor Company at various universities.  In addition to writing and lecturing, Parker owns Snowy Creek Press that publishes books and offers a wide variety of writing and editing services, professional development seminars, and special projects including writing company histories.  During her writing career she has researched and written about local folklore and has written many articles for magazines and newspapers.  Her book The Water’s Edge won two national awards, including Book of the Year award from ForeWord magazine.  She currently lives in Canton, MI with her husband Donald Parker.

Selected Works:

     
• The Water’s Edge (2001)
     
• An Oral History of Our Community (1995)
     
• Canton Township: A Community in Transition (1991)

Awards:

     
• 1995 Historical Society of Michigan Award of Merit for Canton Memories
     
• 1995 Historical Society of Michigan Award of Merit for Crossroads of Canton
     
• 1998, 1999 Managing editor of Michigan Psychiatric Society Newsletter when publication received two Certificates of Honorable Mentions and an Award for             Five Years of Continued Excellence from the American Psychiatric Association
     
• 1997 Nominated for a national Oral History Association Media Award for the archival video series, Canton Memories

Critical Reception:
For The Water’s Edge:
The author has done her homework with this novel, which is filled with good historical research. And although this book is by no means something I would label feminist literature, it certainly has an underlying theme on the plight of seventeenth century English women, such as the fact that midwives were licensed by bishops because childbirth was considered more a religious matter than a medical one—and, even worse, that any midwife discovered doing anything to ease suffering during childbirth would have her license revoked. Highly recommended.
  - The Historical Novels Review Magazine of the Historical Novel Society

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Parker has devoted much time and energy into researching the local folklore of Canton, MI where she currently resides.  In addition she has earned degrees in history, historical preservation, and heritage interpretation at Michigan universities.

 

Passic, Frank Jr.

April 19, 1953 -

Place of Birth:  Albion, MI

Place of Principle Residence:  Albion, MI

Biography:
Frank Passic, Jr was born to Frank, Sr and Pauline Passic in Albion, MI.  After graduating from Albion High School, Passic attended Spring Arbor College and earned his BA degree in 1775.  He is an advent researcher of Albion history and written and published much of his research.  Passic has worked as a curator of local history and an Albion historian for the Albion Historical Society, and has been publishing articles on Albion history for the past twenty-five years.  His weekly columns appear in the Morning Star Shopper, Albion Recorder, and The Mich-Matist.

Selected Works:

     
• History of Albion, MI From the Archives (1991)
     
• A Comprehensive Guide and Key to Artist Albert Ruger’s 1866 Bird’s Eye View of Albion, MI (1988)
     
• Albion’s Banks and Bankers (1985)

 
Awards:

     
• 1983   Heath Literary Award, American Numismatic Association, 1983
     
•         Literary Awards, Michigan State Numismatic Society
     
• 1999   First Place Catherine Sheehan Literary Award for U.S. Paper Money Studies
     
• 1998   American Numismatic Association for article, “The Albion Bank Scandal.” in The Numismatist January 1998 issue

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Passic has devoted most of his life to the history of Albion, and has done much writing on his research, publishing both books and articles for local magazines.  He has access to many resources in Albion history, including Cemetery records and obituaries, family surname files, and photographs that he uses to help other Albion natives look into their family’s roots.

 

 

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