Andrea Barrett
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Andrea Barrett
- Born: 1959
- Birthplace: Boston, MA
Andrea Barrett won the National Book Award for her collection of short stories, Ship Fever, in 1996. Having graduated from Union College in Schenectady, NY, with a degree in biology, she had written four novels, Lucid Stars (1988), Secret Harmonies (1989), The Middle Kingdom (1991), and The Forms of Water (1993), but only became known with the publication of Ship Fever. That collection of stories and her next novel, The Voyage of the Narwhal (1998), drew heavily on science and history. She also wrote a collection of stories called Servants of the Map (2002), in which characters from both Ship Fever and Voyage of the Narwhal appear.
Barrett is married to biologist Barry Goldstein. They both participate in a musical group, with Barrett playing African percussion instruments.
Most Famous Works
- Ship Fever (1996)
- The Voyage of the Narwhal (1998)
Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature:
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Works by Andrea Barrett
(b. 1954)
| 1996 | Ship Fever and Other Stories. Barrett wins the National Book Award for her first story collection, which draws on science and history to present intimate portraits of family relationships. Born in Boston, Barrett grew up mainly on Cape Cod and received a degree in biology from Union College. Her other books include Lucid Stars (1988), The Middle Kingdom (1991), and The Forms of Water (1993). |
| 1998 | The Voyage of the Narwhal. Barrett's richly imagined historical novel follows a young botanist from Philadelphia on a polar expedition. Combining Barrett's interest in science and history, the novel manages to achieve a psychological intimacy in events that are usually reserved for adventure stories. |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Andrea Barrett
Andrea Barrett (born November 16, 1954)[1] is an American novelist and short story writer. Her collection Ship Fever won the 1996 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.[2] She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001, and her book Servants of the Map was a finalist for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[3]
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Early life and education
Barrett was born in Boston, Massachusetts.[1] She earned a B.A. in biology from Union College and briefly attended a Ph.D. program in zoology.
Career
Barrett began writing fiction seriously in her thirties, but was relatively unknown until the publication of Ship Fever, a collection of novella and short stories that won the National Book Award in 1996.[2]
Barrett is particularly well known as a writer of historical fiction. Her work reflects her lifelong interest in science, and women in science. Many of her characters are scientists, often 19th-century biologists.
Barrett teaches at Williams College in Massachusetts and in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers in North Carolina. She was a fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. She lives in North Adams, Massachusetts.
As in the work of William Faulkner, some of her characters have appeared in more than one story or novel. In an appendix to her recent novel, The Air We Breathe (2007), Barrett supplied a family tree, making clear the characters' relationships that began in Ship Fever. Although each novel and story is self-contained, the reader comprehends an added dimension when familiar with the characters' previous histories.
Bibliography
- (1988) Lucid Stars (novel)
- (1989) Secret Harmonies (novel)
- (1991) The Middle Kingdom (novel)
- (1993) The Forms of Water (novel)
- (1996) Ship Fever (collection of short stories) — winner of the National Book Award[2]
- (1998) The Voyage of the Narwhal (novel)
- (2002) Servants of the Map (collection of short stories) — finalist for the Pulitzer Prize[3]
- (2007) The Air We Breathe (novel)
References
- ^ a b "Union Notable - Andrea Barrett". Union College. 2010. http://www.union.edu/about/notables/profiles/barrett.php. Retrieved 2010-05-24.[dead link]
- ^ a b c "National Book Awards – 1996". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-27.
(With essay by Julia Glass from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) - ^ a b "Fiction". Past winners & finalists by category. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-03-27.
External links
- Elizabeth Gaffney (Winter 2003). "Andrea Barrett, The Art of Fiction No. 180". Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/79/the-art-of-fiction-no-180-andrea-barrett.
- Audio recording of Andrea Barrett reading from Ship Fever, 2009 Key West Literary Seminar
- "Andrea Barrett, Author of 'Servants of the Map' talks with Robert Birnbaum", Interview, Identity Theory (2002)
- Peter Kurth interview, "Andrea Barett", Salon (1998)
- A sample manuscript page, The Paris Review (2003)
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Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature
The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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