Papers by Stephanie Grant
Why are these two epic, detailed European works -- My Struggle and The Neapolitan series -- so po... more Why are these two epic, detailed European works -- My Struggle and The Neapolitan series -- so popular? This essay proposes that readers' desires for "deep interiority" is supplanting the desire for the fictive dream.
The New Yorker (online) , Dec 21, 2015
New Yorker essay, about familial rupture and reconciliation between a devout strict mother and a ... more New Yorker essay, about familial rupture and reconciliation between a devout strict mother and a lesbian daughter.
Themes are mothers and daughters, Catholicism, postpartum depression, forgiveness, reconciliation, midcentury US culture, family dynamics, queer children and homophobic parents, religious homophobia.
Narrative Magazine (online) , 2015
"After my mother died, I understood about the river of grief that runs beneath everything, easy t... more "After my mother died, I understood about the river of grief that runs beneath everything, easy to access, easy to dip one’s cup." Short short story (1 page); with thickly bound themes of Catholicism, Mary, Passion, Christ, grief, mother-daughter. Online, free sign up required.
Comment on Narrative's site: "This is powerful text: dense with imagery, gorgeous with words; underlain with sorrow and compassion and knowledge. It should be read in churches, at funerals, in the company of friends."
Tasting Life Twice. (Avon/Marrow). Multiple reprints., 1995
Good short story for basketball fans, especially those who care about race & gender. Great short ... more Good short story for basketball fans, especially those who care about race & gender. Great short piece of fiction that will generate discussion in Courses on Sports & Women/Gender; intersectional female embodiment; LGBT athletics.
Themes: female embodiment, lesbian desire, race, basketball.
Note: Two versions here, one may be a better copy. Also reprinted in a few anthologies.
Narrative Magazine (online), 2013
2013 short story in Narrative magazine about desire, belonging, and identity. Features two charac... more 2013 short story in Narrative magazine about desire, belonging, and identity. Features two characters, one trans* (transman -- the narrator) teen and the other a mixed race younger child, both navigating their self-understanding, set before the 2007 economic crisis in central Massachusetts. Good for readers interested in fiction about American intersections of race, queer, trans identity, touching on economics, gay marriage, adoption.
Free with sign up at Narrative Magazine.
Houghton Mifflin, 1995
"Grant's prose style is relentlessly cool and stark, serving as X-ray vision that registers the h... more "Grant's prose style is relentlessly cool and stark, serving as X-ray vision that registers the hardest truths without prettification.” The Boston Globe
This is an excerpt from the 1995 novel, The Passion of Alice, a story about Catholic conversion, anorexia, and lesbian desire. A fictional novel (not autobiographical), The Passion of Alice was long-listed for Britain's Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction.
Scribner (Simon & Schuster), 2008
Lamda Lit Review: “The world of South Boston, 1974: a white neighborhood fighting change that cam... more Lamda Lit Review: “The world of South Boston, 1974: a white neighborhood fighting change that came in the shape of school buses carrying African American children from Roxbury. Such is the backdrop for Stephanie Grant’s novel, Map of Ireland. Ann Ahern likes playing with fire, both literally and figuratively. Grant’s true gift is her uncanny ability to climb inside the skin of a character.”
The expression, "you have a face like a map of Ireland," sets the themes of place and identity. An edgy coming-of-age story set in a fraught landscape of white racism, black nationalism, class loyalties, and erotic desire. In Ann, "it is as if Charles Dickens had written a tomboy" (Honor Moore) -- a flawed, intense protagonist. voids sentimentality and the pitfalls of white learning at black people's expense.
For readers interested in intersections of race, queer desire, US history, female (butch) protagonists, urban studies. Book group/teaching questions available at https://www.stephaniegrantwriter.com/readers-guide-map.
Books by Stephanie Grant
Official Website for Stephanie Grant, author of The Passion of Alice, Map of Ireland, and Disgust... more Official Website for Stephanie Grant, author of The Passion of Alice, Map of Ireland, and Disgust: A Memoir as well as short writing.
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Papers by Stephanie Grant
Themes are mothers and daughters, Catholicism, postpartum depression, forgiveness, reconciliation, midcentury US culture, family dynamics, queer children and homophobic parents, religious homophobia.
Comment on Narrative's site: "This is powerful text: dense with imagery, gorgeous with words; underlain with sorrow and compassion and knowledge. It should be read in churches, at funerals, in the company of friends."
Themes: female embodiment, lesbian desire, race, basketball.
Note: Two versions here, one may be a better copy. Also reprinted in a few anthologies.
Free with sign up at Narrative Magazine.
This is an excerpt from the 1995 novel, The Passion of Alice, a story about Catholic conversion, anorexia, and lesbian desire. A fictional novel (not autobiographical), The Passion of Alice was long-listed for Britain's Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction.
The expression, "you have a face like a map of Ireland," sets the themes of place and identity. An edgy coming-of-age story set in a fraught landscape of white racism, black nationalism, class loyalties, and erotic desire. In Ann, "it is as if Charles Dickens had written a tomboy" (Honor Moore) -- a flawed, intense protagonist. voids sentimentality and the pitfalls of white learning at black people's expense.
For readers interested in intersections of race, queer desire, US history, female (butch) protagonists, urban studies. Book group/teaching questions available at https://www.stephaniegrantwriter.com/readers-guide-map.
Books by Stephanie Grant
Themes are mothers and daughters, Catholicism, postpartum depression, forgiveness, reconciliation, midcentury US culture, family dynamics, queer children and homophobic parents, religious homophobia.
Comment on Narrative's site: "This is powerful text: dense with imagery, gorgeous with words; underlain with sorrow and compassion and knowledge. It should be read in churches, at funerals, in the company of friends."
Themes: female embodiment, lesbian desire, race, basketball.
Note: Two versions here, one may be a better copy. Also reprinted in a few anthologies.
Free with sign up at Narrative Magazine.
This is an excerpt from the 1995 novel, The Passion of Alice, a story about Catholic conversion, anorexia, and lesbian desire. A fictional novel (not autobiographical), The Passion of Alice was long-listed for Britain's Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction.
The expression, "you have a face like a map of Ireland," sets the themes of place and identity. An edgy coming-of-age story set in a fraught landscape of white racism, black nationalism, class loyalties, and erotic desire. In Ann, "it is as if Charles Dickens had written a tomboy" (Honor Moore) -- a flawed, intense protagonist. voids sentimentality and the pitfalls of white learning at black people's expense.
For readers interested in intersections of race, queer desire, US history, female (butch) protagonists, urban studies. Book group/teaching questions available at https://www.stephaniegrantwriter.com/readers-guide-map.