Colbert, Jaimee Wriston 1951-

PERSONAL:

Born October 20, 1951; U.S. citizen. Education: University of Washington, Seattle, B.A.; Brown University, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Endicott, NY. Office—Department of English, State University of New York at Binghamton, P.O. Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902. E-mail—jcolbert@binghamton.edu.

CAREER:

Texas Southern University, Houston, instructor in English, 1978-79; Georgetown University, Washington, DC, developer of creative writing course, 1979-80; Northeastern University, Boston, MA, began as lecturer, became senior lecturer in writing, 1980-89; Ohio State University, Columbus, lecturer in writing, 1989-91; University of Maine at Augusta, Augusta, lecturer in writing and communications, 1992-99; University of Missouri—St. Louis, St. Louis, assistant professor and distinguished visiting writer, 1999-2000; Columbia College, Chicago, IL, assistant professor and artist in residence, 2000-01; State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, associate professor of creative writing, 2001—. Trinity College, teacher, 1979-80; Georgetown University, adjunct instructor, 1979-80; Stonecoast Writers' Conference, faculty associate, 1995-98; Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, teacher of fiction writing workshops, 1995-99; Rockport College, adjunct faculty for Maine Photographic Workshops, 1996-99; Colby College, visiting assistant professor, 1998-99; University of Southern Maine, teacher of advanced fiction workshop, 1998-99; judge of writing contests; gives readings from her works. Maine State Prison, facilitator of creative writing group and publisher of the journal Rogue's Gallery, 1994-98; Potato Eyes Foundation, began as board member, became vice president, 1993-98.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Zephyr Literary Award, 1993; Delogu Award, outstanding woman fiction writer, University of Southern Maine, 1995; Willa Cather Fiction Prize, 1997, for Climbing the God Tree; fiction fellow, Wesleyan Writers' Conference, 1999; Pushcart Prize nominations, 1999, the short story for "What the Deer Know," 2003, for the short story "Haole Girl Blue," and 2006, for the short story "Just Watching for Jesus."

WRITINGS:

Final Light (poetry chapbook), Bootleg Press (North Carolina), 1993.

Sex, Salvation, and the Automobile (short stories), Zephyr Publishing (Bruce, WI), 1994.

Climbing the God Tree (novel in stories), Helicon Nine Editions (Kansas City, MO), 1998.

Dream Lives of Butterflies (novel in stories), BookMark Press (Kansas City, MO), 2007.

Work represented in anthologies, including Ohio Short Fiction, 1995; Live Poets Anthology, 1996; and Peculiar Pilgrims, Hourglass Press (Chicago, IL), 2006. Contributor to literary journals, including Louisiana Literature, Prairie Schooner, Green Mountains Review, Connecticut Review, New Letters, Tampa Review, Tri-Quarterly, Pacific Coast Journal, Chaminade Literary Review, and Snake Nation Review. Senior fiction editor, Natural Bridge, 1999.

ADAPTATIONS:

Colbert's short stories have been broadcast by Maine Public Radio; some were also selected for live performances on a program titled Maine Speaks.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jaimee Wriston Colbert once told CA: "Climbing the God Tree is a novel in stories that evolves around the repercussions of a murder, a stillbirth, a fatal accident, and a rape, most taking place before the beginning of the book. The killer is in a maximum security prison, located in the fictional town of Rock Harbor, Maine. The book examines the lives of the perpetrators and the victims. The murderer is a brilliant man, but touched by a cavernous darkness, a ‘fallen angel’ who longs for forgiveness but is unable to believe in it. The rapist is a simple man who does not have the capacity to understand what he did, but whose heart can embrace what his mind cannot. Climbing the God Tree is an exploration of violence—personal and at the hands of another—[and] how lives around it are touched. Ultimately, Rock Harbor becomes both a haven and a prison, a place people flee to and want to escape from. The book is about loss and retribution, with characters who cling tenaciously to the possibility of forgiveness and the triumph of love.

"I am from Hawaii but lived in a small town on the coast of Maine for several years. Among the teaching hats I wore until recently is a creative writing workshop I ran at the Maine State Prison, a maximum security facility. There I sat with men who had done the worst a person could do, but who were learning to rise above these things, to discover the human in themselves. Through their tales and trials I became interested in the issues addressed in Climbing the God Tree, but my writing is never about ‘issues.’ I am interested in stories and how these can illuminate the raw edges of human experience. My work is about these edges. It explores the darkness in all of us, yet ultimately reveals the hope that is born when a person chooses to go on, no matter what. I am compelled by characters who exhibit that sort of strength, that gritty survivalism. My work is not ‘uplifting.’ A well known agent once told me after considering then declining to represent me: ‘This is the sort of dark and intelligent work I cannot sell.’ I am not interested in the problems of the rich, the angst of the well-heeled.

"That is not to say my work is always grim. Indeed, often I use humor in the way we need humor in our lives—to get us through. My characters have been described by reviewers as quirky, vivid, and gritty. I love my characters and, in their worst moments, their worst behaviors, I keep loving them—the way a parent keeps loving her wildest child. Climbing the God Tree was a wonderful opportunity for me to explore many characters.

"My novel manuscript An Inordinate Love has three point-of-view characters. It's set in Hawaii, which is the home in my blood. My family has been there for five generations, and the land—its people, its raw sensual beauty—is reflected throughout much of my writing. The novel is about a family's disintegration then regeneration, mental illness, Hawaiian mythology, and mysticism. I have been told that alternating points of view are not popular with the publishing industry, but the advice I give my own students is: write the stories you'd want to read. Another novel manuscript, Shark Girls, is based loosely on a real shark attach in Hawaii in 1958. Ultimately it is about our need to believe in the possibility of miracles in a random, troubled world.

"I am in the middle of my life, and it's taken me this long to start publishing books, which is okay. I'm grateful for the recognition, and I'm also grateful that I've had to work this many years to get it. I also know that I'll keep working and writing the stories I want to tell, to explore, to understand in their deepest ways, without regard to whether they are considered ‘commercially viable.’ John Hawkes, one of my finest teachers at Brown University, used to lament that his critically acclaimed work wasn't being picked up by a ‘big’ publisher, that it wasn't being reviewed in the New York Times. When these things happened, did that make him a better writer? I believe in giving my heart to the story that must be told, the way it needs to be told. This is what I try to teach my students: be true to your stories, and your stories will speak the truth."