Marly Youmans (born Susan Marlene Youmans; November 22, 1953 in
Aiken, South Carolina
Aiken is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Aiken County, in western South Carolina. It is one of the two largest cities of the Central Savannah River Area. Founded in 1835, Aiken was named after William Aiken, the president of the Sout ...
) is an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Her work reflects certain recurring themes such as nature, magic, faith and redemption, and often references visual art.
Background
Marly Youmans grew up in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
, and elsewhere. She currently lives in the village of
Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown is a village in and county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in the C ...
, with her husband and three children. She graduated from
Hollins College
Hollins University is a private university in Hollins, Virginia. Founded in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary in the historical settlement of Botetourt Springs, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States ...
,
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
, and
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
. She taught at
State University of New York
The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...
but quit academia after receiving promotion and tenure in her fifth year.
Writing
Her published work consists of five books of poetry, eight novels and two fantasies for young readers, as well as uncollected short stories, essays and poems. Across all these idioms, her work displays a commitment to rhythm, the sound of words, imagery and complexity of form and allusion. ''Thaliad'', for example, is an epic poem that tells a compelling story of children who survive an apocalypse to begin a new society, written as though a spoken history remembranced in blank verse a generation on. Her novels have been described as 'literary fiction at its finest' in ''Books and Culture'' while ''The Advocate'' has cited her skill at mastering poetic forms. The editor of Books and Culture says, "Youmans (pronounced like 'yeoman' with an 's' added) is the best-kept secret among contemporary American writers."
Her books demonstrate a number of continuing interests: in lives lived close to nature, whether in the past (''Catherwood'') or the future (''Thaliad''), magic, faith and redemption (''Val/Orson'', ''The Foliate Head'') and the individual’s journey from youth to adulthood (''Inglewood'', ''A Death at the White Camelia Orphanage''). Visual art is often referenced in her work and ''Charis in the World of Wonders,'' ''The Book of the Red King,'' ''Thaliad,'' ''The Foliate Head, Glimmerglass, and Maze of Blood'' were collaborations with the artist
Clive Hicks-Jenkins
Clive Hicks-Jenkins (born 11 June 1951) is a Welsh artist known especially for narrative paintings and artist's books. His paintings are represented in all the main public collections in Wales, as well as others in the United Kingdom, and his a ...
with decorations throughout the texts. She provided the title poems for an illustrated anthology, ''The Book of Ystwyth: Six Poets on the Art of Clive Hicks-Jenkins''.
Awards
Youmans has been awarded many "book of the year" and "best of the year" citations by magazines, newspapers, and organizations. She is the winner of
The Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction for ''The Wolf Pit'', her third novel, which was also on the short list for The Southern Book Award. She is a two-time winner of the Theodore Hoepfner Award for the short story and the winner of the New Writers Award of ''Capital Magazine'' (New York), also for the short story. Her latest awards are
The Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction and the Silver in fiction,
ForeWord BOTYA Awards for ''A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage'' (Mercer University Press, 2012.) ''Glimmerglass'' and ''Maze of Blood'' were ForeWord BOTYA finalists. She has held fellowships from Yaddo, New York State, and elsewhere.
She was a judge of the 2012 National Book Awards.
National Book Awards 2012
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Bibliography
Novels
* ''Little Jordan'' (Boston: David R. Godine, 1995) (reprint Tempest, 1996)
* (reprint Bard 1997)
* (reprint Harcourt, 2003, )
* ''Val/Orson'' (Hornsea, UK: P. S. Publishing, 2009) 1-906301-51-4 / 9781906301514 (UK
dual jacketed/unjacketed limited editions
*''A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage'' (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2012) 0881462713 / 9780881462715 (hardcover/paperback/ebook)
*''Glimmerglass'' (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2014) (hardcover)
*''Maze of Blood'' (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2015) (hardcover)
*''Charis in the World of Wonders'' (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2020) (Sythe-sewn softbound with French flaps)
Poetry
* ''Claire: poems'' (Louisiana State University, 2003), (dual hard/softcover)
* ''The Throne of Psyche'' (Mercer University Press - Poetry, 2011) (dual hard/softcover)
*''The Foliate Head'' (UK: Stanza Press, 2012)
*''Thaliad'' (Montreal, CA: Phoenicia Publishing, 2012) (dual hard/softcover)
*''The Book of the Red King'' (Montreal: Phoenicia Publishing, 2019) (dual hard/softcover)
Books for young adults
* (reprint Firebird, 2006, )
* (reprint Firebird)
Essays
* 'Fire in the Labyrinth' in Simon Callow, Andrew Green, Rex Harley, Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Kathe Koja, Anita Mills, Montserrat Prat, Jacqueline Thalmann, Damian Walford Davies and Marly Youmans, ''Clive Hicks-Jenkins'' (2011: Lund Humphries) , pp. 99–123
References
Reviews
* Matthew Gilbert, "Lyrical Prose for a Coming of Age" (''Little Jordan''), ''The Boston Globe'', December 31, 1995
* Philip Gambone, "Another Part of the Forest" (review of ''Catherwood), The New York Times Book Review,'' May 26, 1996
* Paula Friedman, "Fiction" (''Catherwood'') in The Washington Post, September 14, 1997
* Fred Chappell, "''Catherwood''," ''The Raleigh News and Observer,'' June 23, 1996
* Catherwood in ''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'', March 14, 2014
* Bob Summer, "Novel of Civil War Soldier and Slave Transcends Genre" (''The Wolf Pit''), ''The Orlando Sentinel,'' February 10, 2002
* "The Wolf Pit" (starred review) at ''Publishers Weekly'', 2001
* John Wilson, "The Top Ten Books of 2003" (''The Curse of the Raven Mocker''), ''Books and Culture Magazine'', December 2003
* Greg Langley, Books Editor, "YA titles include very good books" (''Ingledove'', Best YA Fiction of 2005, ''TBRA'') ''The Baton Rouge Advocate'', June 5, 2005
* John Wilson, "Favorite Books of 2009" (''Val/Orson,'' Book of the Year), ''Books and Culture Magazine'', December 2009
* Randy Hoyt, "The Throne of Psyche," ''Mythprint'' of the Mythopoeic Society, 48:9 (350), September 2011
* John M. Formy-Duval, "A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage," ''About.com Contemporary Literature'', 2012
* D. G. Myers, "Meursault goes home again" (''A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage''), ''A Commonplace Blog'', December 12, 2012
* John Wilson, "Glimmerglass: A new novel by the 'best-kept secret among contemporary American writers,'" ''Books and Culture Magazine'', November 2014
* Midori Snyder, "The Sublime Collaboration of Author Marly Youmans and Artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins: ''Thaliad''," ''In the Labyrinth'', October 18, 2012
* Rachel Barenblat, "Marly Youmans' ''Thaliad," Velveteen Rabbi'', January 8, 2013
* Tom Atherton, "Glimmerglass by Marly Youmans," ''Strange Horizons'', March 25, 2015
* Suzanne Brazil, "Glimmerglass, a Novel by Marly Youmans,", ''The Seattle Post-Intelligencer,'' January 19, 2015
* Jessica Hooten Wilson "The Recommendations of an Avid Reader" (''The Book of the Red King''), ''Fathom,'' December 18, 2019
* Ben Steelman, "A novel turn, rich and strange" (''Glimmerglass''), ''The Wilmington Star'', November 9, 2014
* Midori Snyder, "An Early Review of ''Maze of Blood'' by Marly Youmans," pre-pub review at ''In the Labyrinth'', February 24, 2015
* Suzanne Brazil, "''Maze of Blood: A Novel'' by Marly Youmans," ''Blogcritics'', December 28, 2015
* Jessica Hooten Wilson, "The Recommendations of an Avid Reader" at ''Fathom'' (''The Book of the Red King''), December 18, 2020
External links
Marly Youmans blog and website
*Seven videos by Paul Digby of poems by Marly Youmans, Pinterest
Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...
*Interview at ''Seattle Post-Intelligence''r, Part One
Part, parts or PART may refer to:
People
*Armi Pärt (born 1991), Estonian handballer
* Arvo Pärt (born 1935), Estonian classical composer
*Brian Part (born 1962), American child actor
*Dealtry Charles Part (1882–1961), sheriff (1926–1927) a ...
, Part Two, February 17, 2015
*Interview, "The Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe: Marly Youmans," Tor.com, October 23, 2014
*Interview, "Author Spotlight: Marly Youmans, ''Lightspeed,'' February 2013
Interview
at ''Clarkesworld Magazine
''Clarkesworld Magazine'' (ISSN 1937-7843) is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It released its first issue October 1, 2006 and has maintained a regular monthly schedule since, publishing fiction by authors such as Elizabe ...
'', May 2010
*Interview, "Marly Youmans discussed her novel, 'The Wolf Pit,'" ''Civil War Book Review'', Fall 2002
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Youmans, Marly
Living people
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American women novelists
American women short story writers
People from Aiken, South Carolina
American women poets
Hollins University alumni
Brown University alumni
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
State University of New York faculty
1953 births
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
20th-century American poets
21st-century American poets
20th-century American short story writers
21st-century American short story writers
Novelists from New York (state)
American women academics