Julie Schumacher | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Novelist, essayist, short story writer and academic |
Spouse | Lawrence R. Jacobs |
Children | 2 |
Awards | Thurber Prize for American Humor, Dear Committee Members Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship Loft-McKnight Award in Creative Prose, The Loft Literary Center |
Academic background | |
Education | B.A., Spanish and Creative Writing M.F.A., English/Fiction |
Alma mater | Oberlin College Cornell University |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Minnesota |
Website | https://julieschumacher.com/ |
Julie Schumacher is an American novelist,essayist,short story writer and academic. She is a Regents Professor of Creative Writing and English at the University of Minnesota. [1] Schumacher specializes in creative writing,contemporary fiction,and children's literature.
Schumacher received her bachelor's degree in Spanish and Creative Writing from Oberlin College in 1981. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiction from Cornell University in 1986. [2]
Following her MFA,Schumacher held brief appointments as an instructor at Saint Olaf College and other academic institutions before joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota as an associate professor in 1996. She was promoted to Professor in 2008,and became Regents Professor in 2021. She has won multiple teaching awards and served as Director of the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Minnesota for twelve years. [1]
Schumacher is married to Lawrence R. Jacobs,the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and the Director of the Center for the Study of Politics at the University of Minnesota. [3]
Schumacher has authored multiple novels,stories,and essays. Her first novel,The Body Is Water,was an ALA Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her other books include An Explanation for Chaos and five books for young readers:The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls, [4] The Chain Letter,Black Box, [5] The Book of One Hundred Truths,and Grass Angel. Schumacher is also the author of the national best-seller,Dear Committee Members,for which she was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor. She was the first woman to win the Thurber Prize.
In 2014,Kirkus Reviews called Dear Committee Members a “funny epistolary novel composed of recommendation letters written by a caustic,frustrated and cautiously hopeful English professor named Jason Fitger." [6] An NPR review noted that the novel "deftly mixes comedy with social criticism and righteous outrage. By the end,you may well find yourself laughing so hard it hurts." [7]
In 2018,Schumacher published The Shakespeare Requirement,a literary "satire that oscillates between genuine compassion and scathing mockery with admirable dexterity" (Kirkus). [8] The New Yorker described the novel as a "sad-professor satire that burns with moral anger." [9]
Schumacher is married to Lawrence R. Jacobs,a political scientist and founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance (CSPG) at the University of Minnesota. He was appointed the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs in 2005 and holds the McKnight Presidential Chair. [13] [14] They met in an English class during their first year at Oberlin College. [15]
They have two adult daughters,Emma Lillian Jacobs and Isabella Nan Jacobs Hale. [16]
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1964 to 1976,he was the Democratic Party's nominee in the 1984 presidential election,but lost to incumbent Ronald Reagan in an Electoral College and popular vote landslide.
Hermione Youlanda Ruby Clinton-Baddeley was an English actress of theatre,film and television. She typically played brash,vulgar characters,often referred to as "brassy" or "blowsy". She found her milieu in revue,in which she played from the 1930s to the 1950s,co-starring several times with the English actress Hermione Gingold.
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Wang Ping is a Chinese American professor,poet,writer,photographer,performance and multimedia artist. Her publications have been translated into multiple languages and include poetry,short stories,novels,cultural studies,and children's stories. Her multimedia exhibitions address global themes of industrialization,the environment,interdependency,and the people.
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Philip E. Baruth is an American politician,novelist,biographer,professor,and former radio commentator from Vermont. A Democrat and member of the Vermont Progressive Party,he represents Chittenden County in the Vermont Senate. He served as Majority Leader from 2013 to 2017,when he endorsed his successor,Becca Balint. He now serves as the senate president pro tempore.
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Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? is a 2014 graphic memoir of American cartoonist and author Roz Chast. The book is about Chast's parents in their final years. Her father,George,died at the age of 95 and her mother,Elizabeth,who worked as an assistant elementary school principal,died at the age of 97. The author derived the book's title from her parents' refusal to discuss their advancing years and infirmities. Chast's cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker magazine since 1978. The book was appreciated for showcasing Chast's talent as cartoonist and storyteller. It received several awards and was a number 1 New York Times Bestseller.
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