20th century Her first national publication was her short story "Idyll," which appeared in
Voyages,} a
literary magazine, in 1968, alongside the work of
Anaïs Nin,
Josephine Miles and Theodore Weiss. In 1972, the oft-reprinted "Growing Up Polish in Pittsburgh" appeared in
American Mix (Lippincott). A version of this story appeared as "The Virgin of
Polish Hill" in Plume's 1992
Catholic Girls. Her stories appeared in several issues of
Yellow Silk. Her first novel,
Mr. Right (Viking), appeared in 1979.
Cosmopolitan called the novel "...a triumph of erotic and witty narrative tension with an impact as startling as it is satisfying." The book was reprinted by The Permanent Press in 1999.
Mr. Right was followed by
The Darkroom (Viking, 1980),
The Girls on the Row (Crown, 1983) and
Patchwork (Crown, 1986). Her short stories continued to appear in anthologies, notably Michele Slung's
I Shudder at Your Touch (HarperCollins, 1992) and
Slow Hand (HarperCollins). In the 1990s Banks wrote a series of comic mysteries set in the equestrian world of dressage, a competitive sport that Banks herself practiced. and reprinted by Amber Quill Press include:
Death by Dressage,
Groomed for Death,
Death on the Diagonal,
Murder Well Bred and
A Horse to Die For. a media arts organization that organises experts to teach screenwriting, production and post-production, In 2011, the
Austin Film Society awarded Banks a grant from the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund to complete her short comedy, "Sex and the Septuagenarian." ==Bibliography==