Antonya Nelson

Antonya Nelson was born in Wichita, Kansas on January 6, 1961. Growing up in a household filled with literature, she was encouraged at a young age to read widely. Her parents’ book collection was open to her as a young girl. She was exposed to diverse literary voices with novels like Valley of the Dolls and Emma. Both of her parents were professors of literature at Wichita State University. Her mother also writes fiction. They were activists and friends with notable writers such as Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg wrote poems set in their hometown of Wichita, Kansas. According to Nelson in an interview with Missouri Review, the girl in "Wichita Vortex Sutra" was written partly inspired by Nelson herself. Two of her siblings studied to become psychologists. In her early twenties, she won the Mademoiselle young writers' contest and had her story published. In an interview with Atlantic Unbound, she described this moment as a "breakthrough" for her as a writer. ==Career==

After graduation, in 1989, Nelson was an Assistant Professor of English at New Mexico State University until 1995. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1995 and held that position at New Mexico State University until the year 2000. From the year 2000 to 2006, she was an official Professor of English at New Mexico State University. She became a faculty member in 1994 at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina, and still holds that position currently. Quarterly West, Redbook, Ploughshares, ''Harper's, and other magazines. They have been anthologized in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories''. In 1999, Nelson & her husband guest-edited American Short Fiction’s magazine together. Several of her novels have been New York Times Book Review Notable Books: In the Land of Men (1992), Talking in Bed (1996), ''Nobody's Girl: A Novel (1998), Living to Tell: A Novel (2000), and Female Trouble'' (2002). Nelson wrote her novel, Nobody’s Girl (1999), with the intention of transforming typical endings to genre novels like romance or mystery into something different. She incorporates both plots into her novel and defies stereotypes. The novel itself blends psychological insight with narrative momentum and was widely reviewed for its look at marriage, memory, and identity. In 2016, she taught a fiction workshop for the Aspen Summer Words Conference. == Writing style ==

When writing, Nelson will transform characters if they feel too familiar, like changing gender or relationship, or location of the story. She calls this "torqueing". For inspiration for novels, she has talked about how she studies people and considers why each person acts the way that they do. In an interview conducted by Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature “Writers On the Fly”, she is asked if her short stories are entirely fiction or partly autobiographical. She replies: “in a way that dreams are real to the dreamer, the fiction is real to me”. Nelson describes her writing and editing process as a coexistence of processes. She looks at it as something to be entertained by, something that she likes to experience by reading out loud. She prefers to write in private, waking up in the middle of the night to do so or leaving the house when she has an idea. While teaching, she takes notes and works on drafts of short stories and typically comes out with one or two in the fall or winter months. If working on a novel, Nelson takes the summer break to work on those as they declare more time. == Personal life ==

In 1984 she married fellow writer and teacher of creative writing, Robert Boswell. They met while both attending the University of Arizona. Both Nelson and her husband share the Cullen Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Houston. == Awards and honors ==

• David Patrick Scholarship for Excellence in Graduate Studies, 1984 • University of Georgia Press, 1988 • Branigan Library Book of the Year, Las Cruces, NM, 2001, Living to Tell. • New York Times 100 Notable Books 2009, Nothing Right., 2009 • Kansas Library Association Book Award (for Nothing Right), 2010 • New York Times 100 Notable Books 2010, Bound • Kansas Library Association Book Award (for Bound), 2011 ==Selected works==

Novels • (1998) [1996]. Talking in Bed. New York: Scribner. • (1999) [1998]. ''Nobody's Girl: a Novel.'' New York: Scribner. . • (2001) [2000]. Living to Tell: a Novel. New York: Scribner. . • (2010) Bound. New York: Bloomsbury USA. . Short fiction ;Collections • (1999) [1990] The Expendables. New York: Simon & Schuster. . • (1999) [1992]. In the Land of Men: Stories. New York: Scribner. . • (1996) [1994]. Family Terrorists. New York: Scribner. . • (2003) [2002]. Female Trouble New York: Scribner. . • (2006). Some Fun. New York: Scribner. . • (2009). Nothing Right. New York: Bloomsbury USA. . • (2014). Funny Once. New York: Bloomsbury USA. . ; Stories ==Notes==