Ellis Avery
Ellis Avery | |
|---|---|
 Avery in 2011 | |
| Born | Elisabeth Atwood October 25, 1972 |
| Died | February 15, 2019 (aged 46) |
| Education | Bryn Mawr College Goddard College (MFA) |
| Years active | 2003–2019 |
| Notable works | The Teahouse Fire, The Last Nude, Tree of Cats |
| Notable awards | Stonewall Book Award, Lambda Literary Award |
| Spouse | Sharon Marcus |
| Website | |
| ellisavery | |
Ellis Avery (born Elisabeth Atwood; October 25, 1972 – February 15, 2019)[1] was an American writer. She won two Stonewall Book Awards (the only author to have done so),[2] one in 2008 for her debut novel The Teahouse Fire[3][4] and one in 2013 for her second novel The Last Nude.[5][6][7] The Teahouse Fire also won a Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Debut Fiction and an Ohioana Library Fiction Award in 2007. She self-published her memoir, The Family Tooth, in 2015.[8] Her final book, Tree of Cats, was independently published posthumously.
Early life
[edit]Avery was raised in Columbus, Ohio, and Princeton, New Jersey.[9] Born Elisabeth Atwood,[10] she legally changed her name to Ellis Avery when she was 18.
Education and career
[edit]As Elisabeth Atwood, Avery attended Columbus School for Girls[10] in Columbus, Ohio, and Princeton Day School[11] in Princeton, New Jersey, from which she graduated a year early, in 1989. While at Princeton Day School, Avery edited and contributed to the literary magazine, Cymbals,[11] sang a cappella in the school's competitive Madrigals group,[11] participated in the drama club,[10] and earned a Merit Scholarship.[12] After Princeton Day School, Avery attended Bryn Mawr College, graduating in 1993 with an independent major in Performance Studies.[9] While at Bryn Mawr, she was an editor of and frequent contributor to The College News.[13] She earned an MFA in Writing from Goddard College's low-residency program.[14] Avery taught creative writing at Columbia University,[15] and previously at the University of California at Berkeley.[16] From September 2017 through December 2018, she pursued a nurse practitioner degree at the MGH Institute of Health Professions and was posthumously inducted into Sigma Theta Tau, the Honor Society of Nursing.
Daily haiku
[edit]Beginning in 2000, Avery wrote haiku daily.[16] She published these online, in hard copy in Broken Rooms (2014), in a self-published collection called 365 one-line haiku in 2015, and in haiku-a-day datebooks for the years 2017, 2018, and 2019.[17]
Personal life
[edit]An out lesbian, her spouse was Sharon Marcus.[1]
In 2012, Avery was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer that affects smooth muscle tissue. She died on February 15, 2019.[1]
Culture
[edit]Themes of Avery's work include "aesthetically disciplined bodies" and "the will to make beauty that exceeds [pain]"[8] She was interested in the formation of queer identity before queerness was a "social category";[18] as such, she was at the forefront of a queer historical fiction movement in which the historical setting is, among other things, an allegory for the queer child awakening to her identity in a household that cannot recognize or name her existence. Avery and her spouse, Sharon Marcus, a professor of English and French literature, influenced each other's work through a shared interest in interrogating received social constructs about women's relationships and lesbian identity in historical contexts.[18] In her later work, through her struggles with cancer and reactive arthritis, Avery became interested in medical narratives by both those afflicted with illness and medical professionals, and in 2018 led a narrative medicine storytelling and writing workshop at Harvard Medical School.
Works
[edit]- The Smoke Week - Gival Press, (2003)[19]
- The Teahouse Fire (2006)[4]
- The Last Nude (2012)[7]
- Broken Rooms (2014)[20]
- The Family Tooth (2015)[8]
- Editor, "Public Streets" series[21][22][23] at Public Books.[24]
- Tree of Cats (2020)[25]
Awards
[edit]- American Library Association Stonewall Fiction Award for The Teahouse Fire[citation needed] and The Last Nude[7]
- Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction for The Teahouse Fire[citation needed]
- Ohioana Library Fiction Award[26] for The Teahouse Fire[27]
- Kiriyama Prize Notable Book for The Teahouse Fire[4]
- Booklist Top 10 First Novels on Audio for The Teahouse Fire[4]
- Golden Crown Historical Fiction Award[28] for The Last Nude[4][28]
- Walter Rumsey Marvin Award[26] for Emerging Writers, Ohioana Library Association, for The Smoke Week[19][27]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Award Winning Novelist Ellis Avery, 46, has Died". Lambda Literary Foundation. February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- ^ Enszer, Julie R. (2016-02-29). "Ellis Avery: On Writing Through Grief, Sickness, and Recovery". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ "Avery, Doty Win 2008 Stonewall Book Awards, GLBTRT Announces". US Fed News, January 14, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e "The Teahouse Fire". Ellis Avery. Archived from the original on 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ "2013 Stonewall Book Awards Announced". American Libraries, January 29, 2013.
- ^ Cody, Christine (2012-03-10). "A Conversation with Ellis Avery". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ a b c "The Last Nude". Ellis Avery. Archived from the original on 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ a b c "The Family Tooth". Ellis Avery. Archived from the original on 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ a b "Bio". Ellis Avery. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
- ^ a b c "Forte et Gratum Winter 2011". Columbus School of Girls. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
- ^ a b c "The Link 1989" (PDF). Princeton Day School. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ "Town Topics, April 11, 1990". Town Topics. 11 April 1990. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
- ^ "Bryn Mawr Repository". Bryn Mawr College Repository: Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College, "Ellis Avery". Retrieved 2019-02-22.
- ^ "Goddard College in Vermont". Poets & Writers. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ "A Passionate Portrait of an Artist and Her Muse". NPR, December 31, 2011.
- ^ a b "Profound Surrender: An Interview with Ellis Avery". The Common, April 3, 2016.
- ^ "Haiku Datebook 2019 by Ellis Avery | Harvard Book Store". shop.harvard.com. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
- ^ a b Neyenesch, Cassandra (2 February 2007). "Ellis Avery and Sharon Marcus with Cassandra Neyenesch". Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved February 2, 2007.
- ^ a b "The Smoke Week". Ellis Avery. Archived from the original on 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ "Broken Rooms". Ellis Avery. Archived from the original on 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ Avery, Ellis (2019-03-01). "On Christopher Street Pier". Public Books. Retrieved 2019-03-01.
- ^ "Public Streets Archives". Public Books. Archived from the original on 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ "Ellis Avery". Public Books. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ "Homepage". Public Books. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ Avery, Ellis (2020-10-25). Tree of Cats. Sharon Marcus. ISBN 978-0-578-75865-7.
- ^ a b "Ohioana Book Awards". 9 January 2014. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ a b "Past Award Winners | Ohioana Library". Ohioana Library. 30 May 2014. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ a b "Golden Crown Literary Society". www.goldencrown.org. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
External links
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
- 1972 births
- 2019 deaths
- 21st-century American novelists
- 21st-century American poets
- 21st-century American women writers
- American women novelists
- American women poets
- Bryn Mawr College alumni
- Columbia University faculty
- Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction winners
- Stonewall Book Award winners
- Lesbian poets
- Lesbian memoirists
- Lesbian novelists
- American LGBTQ novelists
- American LGBTQ poets
- Novelists from New York (state)
- LGBTQ people from Ohio
- LGBTQ people from New Jersey
- Deaths from leiomyosarcoma
- English-language haiku poets
- American women academics
- American lesbian writers