Asta Bowen (born August 12, 1955), sometimes spelled Asta Bowen, is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

young adult writer. She's best known for her novel '' Wolf: The Journey Home''.

Biography

Bowen was born in Chicago to a family of Irish descent. She was raised in Orland Park, Illinois. She published her first book, ''The Huckleberry Book'' in 1988. Nine years later, her best known work, '' Wolf: The Journey Home'' was published. From 1988 to 2001, she published a column in the '' Seattle Post-Intelligencer''. She has also written for the '' Salt Lake Tribune''. She now teaches composition in Kalispell, Montana and lives in Somers, Montana.

The wolf myth

Bowen writes young-adult fiction, with a focus on the myth of the wolf. In ''Wolf: The Journey Home'', there is a scene where a wolf body allows to find the killer has been compared by the professor of American Literature and American Studies S. K. Robisch to a real poaching in the Yellowstone Park, against one male of the Druids wolf pack, named from Druid Peak, the first reintroduced in this park in 1996, where the killer has been apprehended because he kept the head as a trophy. Robisch credits 'Asta Bowen to correctly portraits the role of the den location, to raise the new litter. There is virtually no

anthropomorphism Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

in this novel, the author describes real wolves, with some notable exceptions, deemed to be at the border of anthropomorphism, for example giving to the wolves names like Marth or Oldtooth. British historian Karen Jones, specialized in the history of the American West, environmental history and Animal Studies, stresses upon the importance of such works in the environmental values transmission. She notes works like 'Asta Bowen "contain descriptions of intelligent canine protagonists that countered the images of bestial excess in traditional Euro-American wolf tales.". Jones also notes, more strongly than Robisch the "humanistic traits" of the wolves: in ''Wolf: The Journey Home'', she sees Marta as an "

eco-feminist Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in h ...

icon, a strong female character" and as "totem for positive gender identity". She compares the myth to the Turner's Frontier Thesis: "Bowen's fictionalised rendition of lupine restoration involved copious quantities of pain, struggle, and death. This was a damming verdict on Turnerian triumphalism. Here the wolf story showed a West not won but lost. In Bowen's work, the wolf emerged as a potent signifier of frontier guilt, an expression that also proved common in commentary on the wolf reintroduction programme in Yellowstone in the mid-1990s."

Work reception

Her first novel, ''Wolf: The Journey Home'', is well received and was nominated for the 2006 Teens' Top Ten award by the American Library Association.

Positions

Bowen depicts the role of the television as central in our society, and considers it detrimental to effectively teaching literature.

Bibliography

* ''The Huckleberry Book'' (1988) * '' Wolf: The Journey Home'' (1997)

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, Asta 20th-century American novelists 20th-century births 1955 births American young adult novelists American women novelists People from Orland Park, Illinois People from Flathead County, Montana Living people 20th-century American women writers American women columnists Women writers of young adult literature Novelists from Chicago 21st-century American women