Sheila Kohler
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Sheila Kohler (born 13 November 1941) is a South African author now living in the United States and the author of ten novels (including '' Cracks'' which was adapted into a 2009 film of the same name), and three short story collections. Her writing has appeared in ''
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'', ''
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'' and included in the ''
Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of '' The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in co ...
''. She has twice won an O'Henry Prize.


Biography

Sheila Kohler was born 13 November 1941 in
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...
Kohlrer, Sheila 1941 - Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series , Encyclopedia.com
Retrieved 27 June 2016.
and educated at St. Andrew's School for Girls where she matriculated in 1958 with a distinction in History. She then moved to Europe and spent 15 years in Paris where she married and completed an undergraduate degree in Literature at The Sorbonne (1973) and a graduate degree in Psychology from Institut Catholique (1976). She moved to the United States in 1981 and obtained an MFA from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
(1984). From 1995 to 2000 she taught at
The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
, and between 2000 and 2006 at
Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...
. She now teaches at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
and Columbia, writes a blog for '' Psychology Today'' and lives in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, and
Amagansett Amagansett is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States Census, t ...
. She has three daughters, Sasha Troyen, Cybele and Brett Sasha Troyen has herself published two novels. She is married to Dr. William Tucker, a psychiatrist.


Writing

As revealed in the authors website, the violent death of her sister thirty years ago in apartheid South Africa caused her to explore in her fiction the theme of "violence within intimate relationships, in particular, the abuse of power and privilege." She explains that "Since then I have published nine novels, three collections of short stories, and several others not yet collected, all of which focus in some way on this theme". Her novel ''Open Secrets'' (2020) appeared in ''Vogue'''s list of the best novels of 2020, with Ian Malone writing, "The novel seduces and startles ..as the suspense mounts, the scope of the novel is revealed: Russian liaisons, hidden dossiers, convenient suicides, and complicit children render a frightening—and thrilling—landscape."


Novels

*''The Perfect Place'' (1989) *''The House on R Street'' (1994) *'' Cracks'' (1999) *''The Children of
Pithiviers Pithiviers () is a commune in the Loiret department, north central France. It is one of the subprefectures of Loiret. It is twinned with Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, England and Burglengenfeld in Bavaria, Germany. Its attractions incl ...
'' (2001) *''Crossways'' (2004) *''Bluebird'' (2007) *''Becoming Jane Eyre'' (2009) *''Love Child'' (2011) *''The Bay of Foxes'' (2012) *''Dreaming for Freud'' (2014) *''Open Secrets'' (2020)


Collections

*''Miracles in America'' (1990) *''One Girl'' (1998) *''Stories from Another World'' (2003)


Non-fiction

*''Once We Were Sisters'' (2017)


References


External links

*
Blog
for '' Psychology Today'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kohler, Sheila Living people People from Johannesburg South African women novelists Women mystery writers University of Paris alumni Institut Catholique de Paris alumni Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Princeton University faculty 1941 births People from Amagansett, New York Columbia University faculty The New School faculty Bennington College faculty South African women short story writers South African short story writers Writers from Manhattan