Therese Anne Fowler and Maligned Women: Setting the Story Straight on Zelda Fitzgerald and Alva Vanderbilt Belmont

• Published in: North Carolina literary review no. 27; pp. 72 - 80
• Main Author: Cornett, Sheryl
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Greenville University of North Carolina Press 01.01.2018; The University of North Carolina Press
• Subjects: American literature; Art and society; Baseball; Belmont, Alva Smith; Conversation; Creative process; Creative writing; Creativity; Design; Drama; English language; Essays; Female identity; Fitzgerald, F Scott (1896-1940); Fitzgerald, Zelda; Fitzgerald, Zelda (1900-1948); Fowler, Karen Joy; Fowler, Therese; Fowler, Therese Anne; Historical criticism; Interviews; Le Guin, Ursula K (1929-2018); Novels; Publishing; Television programs; Women; Women and literature; Women in literature; Women in public life; Writers; North Carolina; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 1063-0724

The Beginning of Everything.3 Yet it is her down-to-earth outdoorswoman and adventurer; her inner tomboy (she was the one of the first girls to play Little League baseball, which she did for four years); her dedication as a mom to two now-grown sons and as a partner to husband-author John Kessel that makes Therese Anne Fowler seem like the neighbor-next-door in conversation. [...]as an emerging author under contract with Ballantine, and with a newly minted NC State MFA in Creative Writing, she trained me to take over a position she held in the English department (editorial assistant at the literary journal Obsidian), one she was vacating to work fulltime on her novels, in particular what was to be her debut, Souvenir. The other part of the equation lies with my publisher, St Martin's Press, giving Z the full range of pre-publication support, starting with a striking jacket design and then mounting an effective marketing and publicity campaign; and with booksellers, who also responded with enthusiasm and who have been putting the book into readers' hands for almost five years, now. [...]I had to let all of what I'd learned sift together so that I could do what Method actors do - that is, get right into my characters' skins.