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Minrose Gwin

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Minrose Gwin
Born (1945-11-09) November 9, 1945 (age 79)
Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S.
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • memoirist
  • scholar
  • educator
  • editor
NationalityAmerican
EducationMississippi University for Women
University of Tennessee (BA, MA, PhD)
Website
minrosegwin.com

Minrose Gwin (born November 9, 1945) is an American novelist, memoirist, literary and cultural scholar, teacher, and editor, whose works focus primarily on the American South. Like the characters in her novel Promise, she was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Education

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Gwin received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in English from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She also attended Mississippi University for Women.[1]

Writing career

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Gwin began her writing career as a general assignment news reporter, working at the Press-Register in Mobile, Alabama; United Press International in the Atlanta and Nashville bureaus, where she covered the civil rights movement; and the Knoxville News-Sentinel, where she worked the night police beat.[2]

Gwin turned to freelance writing while in graduate school, then began writing scholarly books and articles after receiving her Ph.D. She is the author of four books of literary and cultural criticism and many articles and lectures. Her work focuses on issues of race, gender, sexuality, and region. She was one of the first scholars to write about southern women's slave narratives, as well as William Faulkner’s treatment of gender and the spatial dynamics of women’s fiction.[3][4][5] In 2013, she published Remembering Medgar Evers: Writing the Long Civil Rights Movement,[6] which brought together journalistic accounts, poetry, fiction, and song about the slain Mississippi Civil Rights leader, with a cover endorsement from his widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams who called the book “a treasure”. Gwin has also edited or coedited books, anthologies, and journals in the field of Southern literature.[7]

In 2004, Gwin published the memoir Wishing for Snow[8][9] about the collision of poetry and psychosis in her mother's life. The memoir marked her turn to creative writing. Her debut novel, The Queen of Palmyra (2010),[10][11] was a finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Award[12] and a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her second novel, Promise (2018),[13][14] was shortlisted for the Willie Morris Award in Southern Literature; her third, The Accidentals (2019),[15] received the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction.[16][17] Her fourth novel, Beautiful Dreamers, was scheduled for publication in 2024 by Hub City Press.[18] Lee Smith has called The Queen of Palmyra "the most powerful and also the most lyrical novel about race, racism and denial in the American South since To Kill a Mockingbird", and Kirkus Reviews has described "Gwin's prose [as] profound and Faulknerian in tone."[19]

Teaching career

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Minrose Gwin has taught as a professor at universities across the United States, including Virginia Tech (1983–1990), the University of New Mexico (1990–2001), Binghamton University (2001–2002), Purdue University (2002–2005), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was Kenan Eminent Professor of English and Comparative Literature (2005–2018). She has given readings and lectures at universities, conferences, and other venues across the country.[20] She is now retired from teaching.

References

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  1. ^ "Minrose Gwin". UNC English & Comparative Literature.
  2. ^ "MINROSE GWIN". Mississippi Writers & Musicians. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  3. ^ Mayo, Louise (January 1988). "[Review of] Minrose C. Gwin. Black and White Women of the Old South: The Peculiar Sisterhood in American Literature". Explorations in Sights and Sounds. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  4. ^ Wagner-Martin, LInda (Winter 1990). "The Feminine and Faulkner: Reading (Beyond) Sexual Difference, and: Reading Faulkner, and: Faulkner's Fables of Creativity (review)". MFS Modern Fiction Studies. 36 (4): 559–562. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  5. ^ Gwin, Minrose (2002). The Woman in the Red Dress: Gender, Space, and Reading. University of Illinois Press. p. 219. ISBN 9780252027321. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  6. ^ Gwin, Minrose (2013). Remembering Medgar Evers: Writing the Long Civil Rights Movement. University of Georgia Press. p. 232. ISBN 978-0820335643.
  7. ^ "MINROSE GWIN". Mississippi Writers & Musicians. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  8. ^ Gwin, Minrose (June 2011). Wishing for Snow. William Morrow. p. 240. ISBN 9780062046345. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  9. ^ "Review of Wishing for Snow". Publishers Weekly. January 2004. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  10. ^ Gwin, Minrose (April 2010). The Queen of Palmyra. William Morrow. p. 416. ISBN 9780061840326. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  11. ^ "Review of The Queen of Palmyra". Publishers Weekly. March 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  12. ^ "Past Winners". Binghamton University. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  13. ^ Gwin, Minrose (March 2019). Promise. William Morrow. p. 416. ISBN 978-0062471710. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  14. ^ Lacy, Bridgette A. (March 3, 2018). "Author thought she knew everything about historic tornado. Her novel tries to right some wrongs". The News & Observer. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  15. ^ Gwin, Minrose (August 2019). The Accidentals. William Morrow Paperbacks. p. 416. ISBN 9780062471758. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  16. ^ "Winners". MISSISSIPPI INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERS. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  17. ^ "Mississippi's best writers, artists, musicians and more: MIAL announces winners". Clarion Ledger. June 27, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  18. ^ "Hub City Press to publish new novel from Minrose Gwin". Hub City Press. Hub City Press. June 6, 2023. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  19. ^ "Review of Promise". Kirkus Reviews. February 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  20. ^ "Emeritus Faculty Members". University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
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