Mona Susan Power
Mona Susan Power | |
|---|---|
| Born | Susan Power[citation needed] 1961 (age 62–63) Chicago, Illinois[1] |
| Pen name | Mona Susan Power |
| Occupation | author, novelist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota,[1] American |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (BA[citation needed]), Harvard Law School (JD),[2] Iowa Writer's Workshop (MFA)[2] |
| Notable works | The Grass Dancer[3] |
| Notable awards | Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award (1995),[3] US Artists Fellowship[3] |
| Relatives | Susan Kelly Power, mother[4] |
| Website | |
| www | |
Mona Susan Power (Standing Rock Dakota, born 1961) is an Native American author based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her debut novel, The Grass Dancer (1994), received the 1995 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for Best First Fiction.
Early life
[edit]Power was born in Chicago, Illinois,[3] and is a Yantonai Dakota enrolled citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota.[4][5] Her mother, Susan Kelly Power, Gathering of Stormclouds Woman (Standing Rock Dakota, 1925–2022), was an activist who helped found the American Indian Center of Chicago.[4] Susan's mother, Mona's grandmother, Josephine Gates Kelly was three-term tribal chairperson for the Stand Rock Sioux Tribe.[4] Mona's great-grandmother was Nellie Two Bear Gates.[6] She is a descendant of Sioux Chief Mato Nupa (Two Bears).[7]
Power's father, Carleton Gilmore Power, a Euro-American from New England, worked in publishing as a salesman. One of his great-great-grandfathers was governor of New Hampshire.[7] She heard stories that inspired her imagination from both sides.
Education
[edit]Power attended Chicago schools, then earned her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a JD from Harvard Law School.[1]
In 1992 she entered the MFA program at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.[2]
Writing career
[edit]After a short career in law, Power decided to become a writer. She worked as a technical writer and editor, reserving her creative writing for off hours.
Her 1994 debut novel, The Grass Dancer, has a complex plot about four generations of Native Americans, with action stretching from 1864 to 1986.
Power has written several other books as well. Her short fiction has been published in the Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review, Voice Literary Supplement, Ploughshares,[8] Story, and The Best American Short Stories 1993. She teaches at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Power's most recent novel, A Council of Dolls, was released in 2023. The novel was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction.[9][10]
Honors and awards
[edit]The Grass Dancer won the 1995 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for Best First Fiction.[3][3] Powers won a United States Artists Fellowship.[3]
Bibliography
[edit]Books
[edit]- The Grass Dancer, Putnam, 1994. Translated in French in 1995 by Danièle and Pierre Bondil under the title "Danseur d'herbe".
- Strong Heart Society, Penguin, 1998.
- Roofwalker, Milkweed Editions, 2002.
- Sacred Wilderness, Michigan State University Press, 2014.
- A Council of Dolls, Mariner Books, 2023.
Short Stories
[edit]- “Dead Owls” in Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (September, 19th, 2023)[11]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Mona Susan Power". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
- ^ a b c Caroline Moseley, "'Grass Dancer' evokes past, present", Princeton Weekly Bulletin, 10 March 1997, accessed 24 July 2014
- ^ a b c d e f g "Mona Susan Power". The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
- ^ a b c d Rickert, Levi (3 November 2022). "Chicago Native American Community Loses Susan Kelly at 97". Native News Online. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
- ^ "Susan Power". Milkweed Editions. 5 October 2016. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
- ^ Ahlberg Yohe, Jill; Greeves, Teri; Power, Susan (2019). "Nellie Two Bears Gates: Chronicling History through Beadwork". Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Art.
- ^ a b Susan Power: Biography and criticism of work, Voices from the Gap, University of Minnesota, accessed 24 July 2014
- ^ "Susan Power", Ploughshares
- ^ Nguyen, Sophia (September 15, 2023). "All the books longlisted for the National Book Awards this year". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
- ^ "The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Fiction". The New Yorker. September 15, 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
- ^ "Never Whistle at Night: 9780593468463 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
Further reading
[edit]- Gleichert-Bothner, Amy. "Changeable Parts: History and Contemporary American Women Writers,"[1] DAIA 5149 (1997): vol. 57, no. 12, Sec. A., Pittsburgh University.
- Kratzert, M. "Native American Literature: Expanding the Canon," in Collection Building Vol. 17, no. 1, 1998, p. 4.
- Shapiro, Dani. "Spirit in the Sky: Talking With Susan Power," People Weekly, 8 August 1994: vol. 42, no. 6, 21–22.
- Walter, Roland. "Pan-American (Re) Visions: Magical Realism and Amerindian Cultures in Susan Power's 'The Grass Dancer,' Gioconda Belli's 'La Mujer Habitada,' Linda Hogan's 'Power,' and Mario Vargas Llosa's 'El Hablador'," American Studies International (AsInt) vol.37, no.3, 63-80 (1999).
- Wright, Neil H. "Visitors from the Spirit Path: Tribal Magic in Susan Power's The Grass Dancer," Kentucky Philological Review (KPR) vol. 10, 39-43 (1995).
External links
[edit]- Susan Power, Native American Writers Project
- Susan Power: Biography and criticism of work, Voices from the Gap, University of Minnesota
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- ^ "Dissertations & Alumni Careers". Deitrich School of Arts & Sciences Literature Program. University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
- 1961 births
- Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni
- Living people
- Harvard College alumni
- Harvard Law School alumni
- Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winners
- Native American novelists
- Native American women writers
- Standing Rock Sioux people
- Writers from Chicago
- Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota
- Yankton Dakota people
- 20th-century Native American writers
- 20th-century Native American women
- 21st-century Native American writers
- 21st-century Native American women