Valerie Martin
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Valerie Martin (née Metcalf; born March 14, 1948) is an American novelist and short story writer. Her novel ''
Property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
'' (2003) won the
Orange Prize for Fiction The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017)) is one of the United Kingdom's m ...
. In 2012, ''The Observer'' named ''Property'' as one of "The 10 best historical novels".


Early life

Martin was born in
Sedalia, Missouri Sedalia is a city located approximately south of the Missouri River and, as the county seat of Pettis County, Missouri, United States, it is the principal city of the Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the city had ...
, to John Roger Metcalf and Valerie Fleischer Metcalf. Her father was a sea captain and her mother was a housewife whose family goes back several generations in
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
,
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 ...
. She was raised in New Orleans from the age of three, attending public elementary school and a Catholic high school ( Mount Carmel Academy). She earned a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree from the
University of New Orleans The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...
in 1970 and graduated from the
MFA Program for Poets & Writers MFA may refer to: Organizations * Marine and Fisheries Agency, a former UK government executive agency * Ministry of Foreign Affairs (including a list of ministries with the name) * Movement of the Forces of the Future (french: Mouvement des Forc ...
at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
in 1974. In the 1970s, Martin took a writing course at
Loyola University New Orleans Loyola University New Orleans is a Private university, private Jesuit university in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name o ...
taught by Southern novelist
Walker Percy Walker Percy, OSB (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990) was an American writer whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is noted for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans; his first, ''The Moviegoer'', won the Nat ...
.


Academic career

Martin has taught at multiple colleges and universities in the United States, in both visiting and tenure-track positions. * 1978–1979:
University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
, Las Cruces (visiting lecturer in creative writing) * 1980–1984 and 1985–1986:
University of New Orleans The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...
(assistant professor of English) * 1984–1985:
University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...
(writer-in-residence/visiting associate professor) * 1986–1989:
Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...
(lecturer in creative writing) * 1989–1997:
University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
(associate professor of English) * 1998–1999:
Loyola University New Orleans Loyola University New Orleans is a Private university, private Jesuit university in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name o ...
(visiting writer-in-residence) * 1999 and 2002:
Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...
(visiting writer) * 2009–present:
Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...
(professor of English) While at the University of Alabama, Martin lived a few blocks away from novelist
Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...
and they became friends. Martin was the first person to read the completed manuscript of Atwood's ''
The Handmaid's Tale ''The Handmaid's Tale'' is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which h ...
'', claiming she told Atwood that the book would make her rich. Atwood returned the favor and read some of Martin's then-unpublished works, and liked them enough to send them to editor and publisher Nan A. Talese, who has remained Martin's editor ever since.


Writing career

Martin's fictional works include ''Set in Motion'' (1978), ''Alexandra'' (1979), ''A Recent Martyr'' (1987), ''The Consolation of Nature and Other Stories'' (1988), ''The Great Divorce'' (1993), '' Italian Fever'' (1999), ''The Unfinished Novel and Other Stories'' (2006), ''Trespass'' (2007), and ''The Confessions of Edward Day'' (2009). She also wrote a biography of St. Francis of Assisi titled ''Salvation: Scenes from the Life of St. Francis'' (2001). Her most recent novel, ''The Ghost of the Mary Celeste'', was published in 2014, and ''Sea Lovers: Selected Stories'' appeared in 2016. Her 1990 novel, '' Mary Reilly'', a retelling of ''
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is a 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old ...
'' from the point of view of a servant in the doctor's house, won the Kafka Prize in 1990 and has been translated into 16 languages. It was released as a
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
in 1996 by Columbia TriStar Pictures, directed by
Stephen Frears Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is an English director and producer of film and television often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply drawn characters. He's received numerous accola ...
and starred
John Malkovich John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Aw ...
as Dr. Jekyll and
Julia Roberts Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. Known for her leading roles in films encompassing a variety of genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and thr ...
as Mary. The
short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
''Surface Calm'' (2001), directed by Michael Miley, is based on her short story of the same title from her first book, ''Love'' (1977). With her niece, poet Lisa Martin, she has written a trilogy of children's books about cats named Anton and Cecil.


Personal life

She was married to artist Robert M. Martin from 1970 until their divorce in 1984. They had one daughter, Adrienne, born in 1975. Martin resides in
Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later orga ...
. She lived with her partner, the translator John Cullen, and her cat named Jackson Gray. Cullen died in April 2021. She enjoys gardening. Martin has continued to teach at the college level even though her writing career has been successful, sometimes taking breaks from the classroom in order to complete a work. She says she needs the social activity of working with young authors to balance the solitary activity that is writing. She initially writes in longhand, later transferring the text to a computer.


Works


Novels

*''Set in Motion'' (1978) *''Alexandra'' (1979) *''A Recent Martyr'' (1987) *'' Mary Reilly'' (1990) *''The Great Divorce'' (1994) *'' Italian Fever'' (1999) *''
Property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
'' (2003) *''Trespass'' (2007) *''The Confessions of Edward Day'' (2009) *''The Ghost of the Mary Celeste'' (2014)


Collections

*''Love: Short Stories'' (1977) *''The Consolation of Nature, and Other Stories'' (1988) *''The Unfinished Novel and Other Stories'' (2006) *''Sea Lovers'' (2015)


Non-fiction

*''Salvation: Scenes from the Life of St. Francis'' (2001)


Children's

*''Anton and Cecil: Cats at Sea'' (2013) *''Anton and Cecil: Cats on Track'' (2015) *''Anton and Cecil: Cats Aloft'' (2016)


Awards and honors

*Louisiana Endowment for the Arts grant (1983) * Kafka Prize (1990) *National Education Association award (1990) *World Fantasy Best Novel nominee (1991): ''Mary Reilly'' *Nebula Best Novel nominee (1991): ''Mary Reilly'' *Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction Best Book winner (2003): ''Property'' *Louisiana Writer Award (2010) *
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
(2011)


References


External links

* *
Audio recording of Valerie Martin reading from ''Property'' at the 2009 Key West Literary SeminarArchived audio interview with Valerie Martin at Wired for Books.org
by Don Swaim {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Valerie 1948 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American women novelists Novelists from Missouri Novelists from Louisiana Novelists from Massachusetts Novelists from New York (state) University of New Orleans alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst MFA Program for Poets & Writers alumni University of New Mexico faculty University of New Orleans faculty University of Alabama faculty Mount Holyoke College faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Loyola University New Orleans faculty Sarah Lawrence College faculty American women academics