Novelists

Balducci, Carolyn

Feb. 13, 1946     –

Place of Birth:  Pelham, NY

Place of Principal Residence:  Ann Arbor, MI

Biography:
Carolyn Feleppa Balducci was born in Pelham, NY to Ernest and Rosaria Feleppa.  She first got her interest in writing through art, being both an avid reader and an artist.  During her education at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in Purchase, NY she wavered between focusing on studio art and English.  In the end, she chose studio art, but her interest in writing lived on.  “As electives, I took a couple of creative writing courses,” Balducci said.  “My best marks were in The History of the English Language — go figure!”  After graduation Balducci taught Creative Writing at the University of Michigan.  She became interested in theater and started translating plays, as well as writing her own for university productions.  Years later Balducci felt the need to become more involved in her hometown, Montauk, and took up the job of program director for the Montauk library.  Her job included organizing local actors to do dramatic readings, a task that required catering plays to the interest of the community as well as using the talents of acting companies to their best advantage.  One of her translated plays, In Times of War by David Alan Moore, was performed by Stage Left in Chicago.  Balducci has written books, articles, poems, plays, and screenplays.  Currently she focuses her time on writing stage plays and screenplays.

Selected works:

       
• Margaret Fuller, A Life of Passion and Defiance (1991)
       
• A Self-Made Woman: the Life of Nobel Prize Winner Grazia Deledda (1975)
       
• Earwax (1972)
       
• Giovanni the Fearless (1971)

Awards:

 
• ALA Notable Book Award
 
• S.I.A.E. commendation for contributions to Italian theater in America
 
• Grants from Michigan Council for the Arts and Ohio Program in the Humanities
 
• American Library Association ‘Guest Editor’
 
• Mademoiselle Magazine ‘Who’s Who’

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
  Working at University of Michigan sparked an interest in Balducci to get involved in writing and translating dramatic works, an occupation she continues today.

Barr, Nancy

1972—

Place of Birth: Springfield, IL

Place of Principal Residence: Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan.

Biography
Nancy Barr is the only child of a working class couple. Her father, Harry, has always been supportive or her and encourages her to dream big. Her mother, Patricia, died when she was nine. After her mother’s death, Barr and her father moved to the Michigan Upper Peninsula. There they lived in the small town of Rapid River, which is at the top of Little Bay de Noc. As a child, Barr dreamed of being many things—such as a doctor, a police officer, and a fighter pilot—but writing never crossed her mind. She didn’t consider it until her freshman year of college. Following the path of journalism, Barr obtained an associates degree with honors from Bay de Noc Community College. She went on to graduate cum laude from Lake Superior State University, with a bachelor’s degree. She began a career as a newspaper journalist, covering police, courts, schools, and local governments for the Daily Press in Escanaba, Michigan. Later, Barr became the news editor for the Daily Mining Gazette in Houghton, Michigan. After working for three years there she took a job at Michigan Technological University, where she currently works. Nancy Barr is engaged to be married and has three cats.

Selected Works

• Page One: Hit and Run (2006)
• Page One: Vanished (2007)

Critical Reception
Nancy Barr is new to the world of fiction. She has written two mystery novels, which have received very positive reviews from newspapers. Major review publications (such as Publishers Weekly and Library Journal) generally don’t review books put out by small publishers, so that has been a problem since reviews by such publications are necessary for strong nationwide sales.

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work
Nancy Barr writes about what she knows. “The U.P. is a character in my books.” She says, “I made a point to use real towns as settings because this is a special area…It takes a certain kind of person to really embrace the U.P….I love the lifestyle.” Her work also stems form her experience as a journalist and the people she has encountered over the years.

Baxter, Charles

May 19,1947—

Place of Birth: Minneapolis, MN

Place of Principal Residence: Ann Arbor, MI

Biography
Charles Baxter was born to John and Mary Baxter in Minneapolis, MN on May 19, 1947.  His Father died when he was a baby and his mother remarried a wealthy attorney, on whose posh home Baxter spent much of his childhood in isolation.  Baxter earned his BA at Macalester College and his PhD in 1974 at University of Buffalo.  During his years as a student, Baxter experimented with poetry before moving on to fiction.  It took several years for Baxter to adjust himself to the customary literary criticism.  Baxter temporarily gave up fiction for academic writing when editors and readers spurned his first three books.  But after working for a time with short stories, he slowly built up an impressive repertoire of novels.  Baxter was a Professor of Writing at the University of Minnesota from 1974 – 1988, and is now the Creative Writing director at University of Michigan.  He currently lives in Ann Arbor, MI with his wife Martha, and has one son, Daniel.

Selected Works

Novels:

• First Light (1987)
• Shadow Play (1993)
• Feast of Love (2000)
• Saul and Patsy (2003)

Poems:

• “Imaginary Paintings” (1999)
• “The South Dakota Guidebook” (1974)
• “Chameleon” (1970)

Short Story/Essay Collections:

• Harmony of the World (1984)
• Through the Safety Net  (1985)
• Gryphon  (1985)
• A Relative Stranger  (1990)
• Believers (1997)
• Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction  (1997)

Awards

• 1982 Lawrence Foundation Award
• 1983 National Endowment for the Arts Grant
• 1984 Michigan Council for the Arts Grant
• 1985-86 Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1991 Lawrence Foundation Award
• 1991 Arts Foundation of Michigan Award
• 1992-95 Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Foundation Fellowship
• 1993 Michigan Author of the Year Award
• The 1994 Cohen Award for the best essay published in Ploughshares
• The 1994 Daniel A. Pollack-Harvard Review award to Shadow Play
• The 1994 Gettysburg Review nonfiction prose award for
• 1995 Ohio University Spring Literary Festival Honoree
• The 1997 Award in Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2000 National Book Award (Finalist) for The Feast of Love

Critical Reception
For Saul and Patsy

“Much like the episodic nature of his other works, including Feast of Love, Baxter weaves much more of a philosophical tale than a plot-driven one. But it is a tale worth telling, and well worth reading. As an author, Baxter possesses a unique gift of making real life rather interesting without sensationalizing it. Therein lies Saul and Patsy’s success, as a book with an indelible culminating effect - providing a genuine revelation for both the characters within and, quite likely, for the reader as well.”
    - MostlyFiction

For The Soul Thief

“The final twist to the tale is anticlimactic. Yes, writers are the most unrepentant soul thieves of all. They lift details from the lives of others with light-fingered ease. But when the story is well-told, no one notices or cares. It’s only when the theft is clumsy and the story misshapen that people can spot the crime. In this case, Baxter has been caught red-handed.
    - New York Daily News

“Pros: Baxter’s ethereal writing and witty mockery of academic intelligentsia reinforce his decidedly creepy story of identity theft. This novel strongly recalls Patricia Highsmith’s sordid tales about the sociopathic Tom Ripley. 
Cons: An unconvincing confrontation in the book’s final half belies the emotional depth charges of the first act, and a last-minute twist undermines the book’s cohesion.         
Final word: An intriguing opening act and a pair of deeply flawed characters heighten this fractured cautionary tale about the dangers of becoming persona non grata.”
        - Rocky Mountain News

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work
Although Baxter’s received his PhD from University of Buffalo and currently resides in Minneapolis, his writing reflects his native Midwest, often in the semi-rural, imaginary town of Five Oaks, Michigan. Baxter has created tales about the mostly small-town, small-time lives of teachers, salesmen, students, dropouts, and even an astrophysicist.

Braun, Lilian Jackson

1916 —
Place of Birth: Massachusetts

Place of Principal Residence: North Carolina

Biography
“Lilian Jackson Braun is a hard woman to pin down.  It is generally believed that she was born in 1916, although the date still remains somewhat ambiguous with conflicting reports from publishers.  She was born in Massachusetts, but shortly after moved with her family to Michigan.  According to Braun, her mother had a huge influence on her storytelling abilities by having her talk about her day after school.  At the age of three Braun’s mother taught her how to read and write so she could keep in contact with her grandmother.  At the age of sixteen Braun graduated from high school and started writing sports poetry for the Detroit News.  In addition, she penned articles under the name Ward Jackson for the Baseball Magazine and The Sporting News.  Eventually Braun moved on to become an advertising copywriter for Detroit department stores.  As a cat lover Braun centered the plot of first book series, Cat Who, on a fictitious retired newspaper reporter, James Qwilleran, and his two Siamese cats, KoKo and Yum Yum.  Braun currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, Earl Bettinger, and her two Siamese cats..”

Selected Works

• The Cat Who Saw Red
• The Cat Who Robbed a Bank
• The Cat Who Said Cheese
• Other books in The Cat Who… series

Awards

• 1987 Edgar Awards (Edgar Allan Poe Awards) Nominee for The Cat Who Saw Red
• Literary Guild, Alternate Selection for The Cat Who Came to Breakfast, The Cat Who Said Cheese
• Mystery Guild, Main Selection for The Cat Who Came to Breakfast

Critical Reception
In 1966, The New York Times labeled Braun, “the new detective of the year.” However, this new mystery author disappeared from the publishing scene for 18 years. The blame came from the thought that mystery novels were starting to concentrate on sex, violence, and inappropriate language, and Braun’s light-hearted books were not welcome in this new territory.  Finally, in 1986 the Berkley Publishing Group reintroduced Braun to the public with the publication of her original paperback, The Cat Who Saw Red. Within two years, Berkeley released four new novels in paperback and reprinted the three mysteries from the sixties. Braun’s series became an instant best seller once again. In January 2007 the twenty-ninth novel in the series, The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers, was released in hardcover by the Penguin Group.

      For The Cat Who Saw Stars:           “The Cat Who Saw Starsis Braun’s 21st Cat Who Mystery novel and she hasn’t lost her touch. Her Human characters are funny and familiar,           while the two Siamese, Koko and Yum Yum, still sparkle. Reading this book is like dropping in on old and very dear friends.”         - New York Daily News For Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers:         “Longtime fans of LJB will devour her newest cozy like cats rolling in fresh catnip, even with numerous integral plot threads underexplored or left           completely unresolved. But with so much pivotal transition going on, devotees of this series will likely look past the lack of a satisfying           conclusion and begin impatiently awaiting the 30th book in the saga for resolution….”         - Barnes & Noble

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work
Although never formally stated in the books, the towns, counties and lifestyles described in The Cat Who… series are generally accepted to be a modeled after Bad Axe, Michigan (located in the “Michigan Thumb”) where Braun lived with her husband for many years until the mid 1980’s. Many also believe that the culture and history of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are represented in the series.  Kent Rasmussen of the Library Journal sums it up, ” The true charm of these works is the marvelous sense of place that Braun evokes.

Carey, Diane

October 2, 1954—

Place of Birth: Flint, MI

Place of Principal Residence: Flint, MI

Biography
Carey was born to Frank and Susan Carey in Flint, MI.  At the age of twenty-two, she graduated with honors from Alma College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She later attended West Virginia University, but got her Master of Arts degree from the University of Michigan. Over the years she occupied many positions, from Judicial Secretary and Instructor of English, to concert tuba player and member of the Flint Scottish Bagpipe Band. Since 1983 Carey has made a career out of her writing.  She is married to Gregory E. Brodeur, who she says “edits all my work, making detailed, intuitive suggestions for expanding or revising each scene.” They have made a unique life together, engaging in such activities as ship sailing, motor cycling, and taking in over 300 dogs and cats off the street and finding them homes. 
Carey has put out forty-four novels, seven of which became New York Times Bestsellers. Her subjects range from the Civil War to Star Trek, and she works with genres from science fiction to romance. Her work in the Star Trek franchise has undisputedly gained her the most recognition. Her novel Star Trek: Dreadnought!, made history as the first Star Trek book to get on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Selected Works

     
• Unwilling Enchantress (1982)
     
• Dreadnought (1986)
     
• Star Trek: The Great Starship Race (1993)
     
• Aliens: DNA War (2006)

Awards

• Awarded a Distinguished Fellowship by the Flint Northern High School Alumni Association

Critical Reception:
Carey’s success was not without some controversy: Critics would later accuse Carey of fashioning the heroine of Star Trek: Dreadnought! after herself as well as other main characters after personal friends. Her subsequent novels in the franchise, however, received a more general acclaim.

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