Marianne Wiggins
| Marianne Wiggins | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 8, 1947 Lancaster, Pennsylvania |
| Occupation | Author |
Marianne Wiggins (born September 8, 1947) is an American author. She is noted for the unusual characters and storylines in her novels.[1] She has won the Whiting Writers' Award, an NEA award and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Wiggins was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her family was of Greek and Scots ancestry. Her father, a farmer, preached in a conservative Christian church founded by her grandfather. She married at 17, just after graduating from Manheim Township High School and promptly gave birth to a daughter, Lara, whom she raised in Martha’s Vineyard. Lara is now a professional photographer in Los Angeles.
Wiggins lived in London for 16 years and for brief stints in Paris, Brussels and Rome.
She and Salman Rushdie wed in January 1988. On a book tour in the US, the couple learned on February 14, 1989 that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had ordered Rushdie killed for blasphemy in the book The Satanic Verses. As a result, Wiggins went into protective hiding in Great Britain, along with Rushdie.[3] In 1993, the two divorced.
“I have lived a really interesting life,” she told Pamela J. Johnson in July 2006. “I haven’t lived it so I can excavate material for my writing.” She added, “I’m a novelist. I don’t have those muscles. It’s not about me. It’s about what I’ve imagined. It’s the universal voice that I want to move forward. That’s my natural voice.”[4]
She currently lives in Los Angeles, California, where she has been in the English department of the University of Southern California since fall, 2005.[4]
Wiggins won a Whiting Writer's Award[5] in 1989. Ten authors annually win this award, currently $40,000, not for a specific work, but for exceptional talent and promise. She was a National Book Award Finalist in 2003 for Evidence of Things Unseen.[2]
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Novels
- Babe, 1975, was the story of a single mother.
- Went South, 1980.
- Separate Checks, 1984, a short-story writer recovers from a nervous breakdown.
- After this book was published, Wiggins was able to support herself and her daughter from her novels.
- Herself in Love, 1987.
- John Dollar, 1989, Eight girls, marooned on an island.
- Won the Janet Heidiger Kafka Prize for best novel written by an American woman.
- Eveless Eden, 1995, the romance between a war correspondent and photographer.
- Story suggested by then-husband Salman Rushdie.
- Shortlisted for 1996 Orange Prize.
- Almost Heaven, 1998.
- Evidence of Things Unseen, 2003, the dawn of the atomic age is seen through the eyes of Fos, an amateur chemist in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and Opal, a glassblower's daughter.
- Nominated for 2003 National Book Award.
- Gold medal for 2004 Commonwealth Club Prize (Fiction).
- Finalist for 2004 Pulitzer Prize.
- The Shadow Catcher, 2007, dual narrative threading early life of photographer Edward Curtis and current life of "Marianne Wiggins."
[edit] Collections
- Bet They'll Miss Us when We're Gone, 1991
[edit] References
- ^ Barnes and Noble Writers
- ^ a b National Book Award page
- ^ Caryn James, "Marianne Wiggins And Life on the Run," New York Times, April 9, 1991
- ^ a b "Painting Words on a Canvas," USC Interview July 2006
- ^ Whiting Award
[edit] External links
- Wired for Books (1990 audio interview with Don Swaim)
- Marianne Wiggins And Life on the Run, New York Times, April 9, 1991 (review of Bet They'll Miss Us when We're Gone).
