Sandra Scofield is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

ist, editor and author of writers’ guides.

Biography

Sandra Scofield was born to Edith Aileen Hambleton in

Wichita Falls, Texas Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. Accordin ...

, in 1943. Scofield taught in public schools and colleges, but stopped working in 1983 to write full-time. Her first novel was ''Gringa'', based on her observations and experiences in 1960s Mexico. Since then she has published six more novels and a memoir, in addition to numerous book reviews, scholarly publications, and short stories. She occasionally teaches writing in summer workshops, visits MFA programs, has mentored individual writers, and has written a book for writers, ''The Scene Book'', published by Penguin in 2007. She is organizing letters written to her close friend Mary Economidy in the 1960s, and completing writing projects. She frequently reviews books for national newspapers including the ''Dallas Morning News'', ''Chicago Tribune'', ''Newsday'', and ''The Boston Globe''.

Awards

Her awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1991); ''Beyond Deserving'' was a 1991 finalist for a

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

; and ''A Chance to See Egypt'' received the Best Fiction award from the

Texas Institute of Letters The Texas Institute of Letters is a non-profit Honor Society founded by William Harvey Vann in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement. The TIL’s elected membership consists of the state’s most respe ...

in 1996.

Bibliography

Novels and other fiction

*''Gringa''. Sag Harbor, NY: Permanent Press, 1989. *''Beyond Deserving''. Sag Harbor, NY: Permanent Press, 1991. *''Walking Dunes''. Sag Harbor, NY: Permanent Press, 1992. *''More Than Allies''. Sag Harbor, NY: Permanent Press, 1993. *''Opal on Dry Ground''. New York: Villard Books, 1994. *''A Chance to See Egypt''. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. *''Plain Seeing''. New York: Cliff Street Books, 1997. *''Swim: Stories of the Sixties''. Ashland, OR: Wellstone Press, 2017.

Essays, compilations and memoirs

*''Occasions of Sin: a Memoir''. New York: Norton, 2004. *''The Scene Book: A Primer for the Fiction Writer''. New York: Penguin Books, 2007.
*''Children of the Dust: an Okie Family Story'' (ed.) by Betty Grant Henshaw. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2006. *''Mysteries of Love and Grief: Reflections on a Plainswoman's Life''. Texas University Press, 2015. *''The Last Draft: A Novelist's Guide to Revision''. New York: Penguin Books, 2017.

References

External links

Author’s own site with bio, blurbs, excerpts and links (Archived from February 24, 2009)

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080828045243/http://www.thesquaretable.com/Summer2004/motherhair.htm Excerpt from ''Occasions of Sin'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Scofield, Sandra 20th-century American novelists American women novelists Novelists from Texas Living people American women essayists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American essayists American Book Award winners Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women