Robin Oliveira

Last updated
Robin Oliveira
Born1954 (age 69–70)
Albany, New York, U.S.
Education University of Montana (BA)
Vermont College of Fine Arts (MFA)
OccupationAuthor

Robin Oliveira (born 1954) is an American author, former literary editor, and nurse, who is most known for her debut novel, My Name is Mary Sutter, published in 2010. Her second novel, I Always Loved You, was published by Penguin on February 4, 2014.

Contents

Early life

Robin Frazier Oliveira was born in Albany, New York in 1954, [1] and grew up in nearby Loudonville, New York, graduating Shaker High School. [2] She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Russian from the University of Montana in 1976, and continued her study at the Pushkin House Institute of Russian Literature in Moscow. [3] After finding this wasn't a viable career path, she studied nursing, earning a living as registered nurse specializing in critical care and bone marrow transplant, in Seattle. [4]

Writing

Oliveira worked in nursing until the birth of her children, when she left work to stay home with them, but when her youngest son entered kindergarten, she decided to try to write a book instead of returning. [4] [5] She went back to school to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2006. [1] She served as assistant editor at Narrative Magazine , and from 2007 through 2011 as fiction editor for the annual literary magazine upstreet. [6]

Oliveira began writing the novel that became My Name is Mary Sutter in 2002. It tells the story of an Albany midwife trying to become a surgeon during the American Civil War. At first, Oliveira admits, the writing wasn't very good, and her writing teacher doubted it could succeed. Rewriting took years, including traveling to Washington, D.C. for extensive research at the National Archives and the Library of Congress. [4] [5] [7] In 2007, while still in progress, it won the James Jones First Novel Award under the working title The Last Beautiful Day. [1]

My Name is Mary Sutter was published in 2010 by Viking Press in the United States ( ISBN   0670021679) and the Fig Tree imprint of Penguin Books in the United Kingdom in 2011 ( ISBN   978-1905490684). It was widely reviewed, mostly favorably, with reviewers commenting on the detailed research and the determined heroine. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] It won an honorable mention for the 2010 Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction, [13] and won the 2011 Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction. [14]

Personal life

Oliveira lives just outside Seattle, Washington, [15] with her husband Andrew. They have a daughter, Noelle, and a son, Miles. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonia Fraser</span> British author and novelist (born 1932)

Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and prior to his death was also known as Lady Antonia Pinter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Shaara</span> American novelist

Jeffrey M. "Jeff" Shaara is an American novelist and the son of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Shaara.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Shaara</span> American novelist

Michael Shaara was an American author of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical fiction. He was born to an Italian immigrant father in Jersey City, New Jersey, graduated in 1951 from Rutgers University, where he joined Theta Chi, and served as a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division prior to the Korean War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Hobb</span> American fiction writer (born 1952)

Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, known by her pen names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, is an American writer of speculative fiction. As Hobb, she is best known for her fantasy novels set in the Realm of the Elderlings, which comprise the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies, the Rain WildChronicles, and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Lindholm's writing includes the urban fantasy novel Wizard of the Pigeons and science fiction short stories, among other works. As of 2018, her fiction has been translated into 22 languages and sold more than 4 million copies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessie R. Fauset</span> American writer, poet, and educator (1882–1961)

Jessie Redmon Fauset was an editor, poet, essayist, novelist, and educator. Her literary work helped sculpt African-American literature in the 1920s as she focused on portraying a true image of African-American life and history. Her black fictional characters were working professionals which was an inconceivable concept to American society during this time. Her story lines related to themes of racial discrimination, "passing", and feminism.

Barbara Hambly is an American novelist and screenwriter within the genres of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction. She is the author of the bestselling Benjamin January mystery series featuring a free man of color, a musician and physician, in New Orleans in the antebellum years. She also wrote a novel about Mary Todd Lincoln.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate O'Brien (novelist)</span> Irish novelist, playwright and activist

Kate O'Brien was an Irish novelist and playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laila Lalami</span> Moroccan-American writer, and professor (born 1968)

Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-American novelist, essayist, and professor. After earning her licence ès lettres degree in Morocco, she received a fellowship to study in the United Kingdom (UK), where she earned an MA in linguistics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Sussex</span> New Zealand writer

Lucy Sussex is an author working in fantasy and science fiction, children's and teenage writing, non-fiction and true crime. She is also an editor, reviewer, academic and teacher, and currently resides in Melbourne, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Virginia Terhune</span> American author

Mary Virginia Terhune, also known by her penname Marion Harland, was an American author who was prolific and bestselling in both fiction and non-fiction genres. Born in Amelia County, Virginia, she began her career writing articles at the age of 14, using various pennames until 1853, when she settled on Marion Harland. Her first novel Alone was published in 1854 and became an "emphatic success" following its second printing the next year. For fifteen years she was a prolific writer of best-selling women's novels, classified then as "plantation fiction", as well as writing numerous serial works, short stories, and essays for magazines.

Mary Wings was an American cartoonist, writer, and artist. She was known for highlighting lesbian themes in her work. In 1973, she made history by releasing Come Out Comix, the first lesbian comic book. She also wrote a series of detective novels featuring lesbian heroine Emma Victor. Divine Victim, Wings' only Gothic novel, won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery in 1994.

Cornelia Nixon is an American novelist, short-story writer, and teacher. She has lived much of her mature life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Shelley</span> English writer (1797–1851)

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft.

The David J. Langum Sr. Prizes are American literary awards for historical fiction, biography, and legal history. They have been awarded annually since 2001 by the Langum Charitable Trust.

The Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction is an annual literary award awarded to the writer of a work of fiction related to the American Civil War. The award was started by Jeffrey ("Jeff") Shaara,, and named for his father, the writer of historical fiction Michael Shaara, (1928–1988), who won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for the 1974 novel of the American Civil War, The Killer Angels, about the Battle of Gettysburg, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and later made into the Ted Turner-produced movie in 1993, Gettysburg, by director Ronald Maxwell. The original novel and movie later became the inspiration for son Jeff's prequel Gods and Generals, (1996), and sequel The Last Full Measure, (1998), set of novels of which Gods and Generals was also made into a film in 2003 by Turner and Maxwell focusing on the earlier part of the war with Confederate General Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson. The younger Shaara has also since written several other novels and series of historical fiction about the American Revolutionary War, Mexican–American War, World War I and World War II. He later returned to the theme of the Civil War with a set of works focusing on the western theatre of the war,.

<i>Lady of the Forest</i> Book by Jennifer Roberson

Lady of the Forest: A Novel of Sherwood is a 1992 historical fiction novel by American author Jennifer Roberson. A re-telling of the Robin Hood legend from the perspective of twelve characters associated with the legend, the story centers around English noblewoman Lady Marian FitzWalter's encounters with Lord Robert of Locksley and his scheming rival the Sheriff of Nottingham amid the backdrop of Prince John's schemes – he aims to increase his own wealth and power at the expense of post-Conquest England and his brother, King Richard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gail Scott (writer)</span> Canadian writer

Gail Scott is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, essayist and translator, best known for her work in experimental forms such as prose poetry and New Narrative. She was a major contributor to 1980s Québécoise feminist language theory, known as écriture au féminin, which explores the relationship between language, bodies, and feminist politics. Many of her novels and stories deal with fragmentation in time, in subjects, and in narrative structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherry Thomas</span> American writer

Sherry M. Thomas is an American novelist of young adult fantasy, historical romance, and contemporary romance. She has won multiple awards including the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Historical Romance for Not Quite a Husband in 2010 and His at Night in 2011.

<i>Mind of My Mind</i> 1977 novel by Octavia E. Butler

Mind of My Mind (1977) is a science fiction novel by American writer Octavia E. Butler. Mind of My Mind is the prequel to Butler's novel Patternmaster, and is the second novel in the Patternist series.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Robin Oliveira awarded James Jones First Novel Fellowship", James Jones Literary Society newsletter, volume 16, number 2, Fall 2007. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  2. ↑ "Five Questions for March 27, 2011: Robin Oliveira", by Chris Fitz Gerald, , The Record , March 27, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Alumni Notes", Montanan , Winter 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 "Interview with Local Author Robin Oliveira", by Ross McMeekin, 06/09/2010, Richard Hugo House. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  5. 1 2 "Author Robin Oliveira Comes to SMU", by Sadi Anderson, SMU Daily Mustang, April 26, 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  6. ↑ "New upstreet Fiction Editor", Vivian Dorsel, editor and publisher of upstreet, upstreet Fan Club, August 4, 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  7. ↑ "Novel examines 1860s Albany midwife with ambition to be more", by Elizabeth Floyd Mair, Times Union , May 23, 2010.
  8. ↑ "The Browser", review by Connie Nelson, Star Tribune , October 30, 2011.
  9. ↑ "New novels from Ariana Franklin and Robin Oliveira turn on the resourceful historical heroine", by Michele Ross, The Plain Dealer , July 01, 2010.
  10. ↑ "'Wench' and 'My Name is Mary Sutter': Novels of 19th-century women", by Barbara Lloyd McMichael, May 15, 2010, The Seattle Times .
  11. ↑ "Roundup: Historical fiction focused on women", USA Today , 8/25/2010.
  12. ↑ "'Mary Sutter' is gripping medical fiction at its best", by Jessica Harrison, June 19, 2010, Deseret News .
  13. ↑ "American Historical Fiction Honorable Mention for 2010" Archived 2012-06-30 at the Wayback Machine , Langum Prizes official site. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  14. ↑ "Michael Shaara Prize for Excellence in Civil War Fiction" Archived 2011-12-21 at the Wayback Machine , Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  15. ↑ "What it’s like living here: on Cougar Mountain, just outside Seattle", Robin Oliveira, Numéro Cinq, 2010/12/16. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  16. ↑ "About Robin Oliveira". Official web site. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.