Cummins, Ann

PERSONAL:

Born in Durango, CO; daughter of Cyril P. and Barbara R. Cummins; married Steven Evans Willis (a musician), April 14, 2001. Education: Johns Hopkins University, M.F.A., 1987; University of Arizona, Tucson, M.F.A., 1989.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Oakland, CA; Flagstaff, AZ. Office—Department of English, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6032. E-mail—ann.cummins@nau.edu.

CAREER:

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, professor of English.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Arizona Commission on the Arts, fellow, 1990, 1994; Lannan Foundation fellow, 2002-03.

WRITINGS:

Red Ant House: Stories, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2003.

Yellowcake (novel), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2007.

Author's work represented in anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories 2002, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA). Contributor to periodicals, including McSweeney's and the New Yorker.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ann Cummins is the daughter of Irish immigrants who settled in Colorado. Her father, a uranium mill worker, moved the family to Shiprock, New Mexico, when she was nine, and Cummins graduated from high school on the Navajo Indian reservation.

The English professor's first book is a collection titled Red Ant House: Stories. The stories are set in small Southwestern towns, and protagonists tend to be young people lacking parents or guidance, but even in the tales about adults, there is frequently the overriding emotion of loss and the need to escape. Two of the stories, "Trapeze" and "Bitterwater," are about white families living on the reservation. Cummins lost her own father to lung disease while she was writing "Headhunter," which she told Homestead Review Online interviewer Kathryn Petrucelli was her favorite. She said: "I think my characters tend to be lonely souls. And I do think they are looking for moments of connection with the different people who fascinate them. They also are attracted to fascinating people. They're pulled into dramas by people who would not normally be good friends to them. Frequently I'll find my plot in those kinds of tensions: characters who are very different and the attractions are centered on the differences."

In reviewing the collection for the Literary Potpourri Web site, Laura M. Schneider wrote: "Cummins drills to the center of what makes these characters tick, what they long for, fear and what they dream—and how this works into life on the desolate landscape where her characters reside. Many of the characters are the types who imagine they're invisible to the rest of the world. She reminds us that there's always something to see on the surface, but just imagine what you'll find if you dig a little deeper. This collection, mutually charming and disturbing, is a wonderful beginning for this promising writer."

Cummins draws on her knowledge of the uranium mining industry in her debut novel, Yellowcake. The title refers to the uranium concentrate used in making nuclear fuel. Ryland Mahoney, a foreman at a uranium mine until it closed in 1991, now depends on an oxygen tank to stay alive. Dying of cancer is Woody Atcitty, a Navajo man whose bank-officer daughter joins with Ryland's wife to seek compensation from the mining company. Ryland wants nothing to do with the action however, refusing to believe that his job caused his illness. The story is a saga of two families with very different values that, nevertheless, become intertwined because of the relationships of its members and the impact of mining on both people and the natural environment. "Cummins brilliantly conflates the insidious damage wrought by radiation sickness with the maladies of the soul," concluded Booklist contributor Donna Seaman.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 2003, Brendan Dowling, review of Red Ant House: Stories, p. 1375; February 1, 2007, Donna Seaman, review of Yellowcake, p. 29.

Entertainment Weekly, March 16, 2007, Ben Spier, review of Yellowcake, p. 72.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2003, review of Red Ant House, p. 159; November 15, 2006, review of Yellowcake, p. 1143.

Library Journal, January 1, 2007, Jenn B. Stidham, review of Yellowcake, p. 88.

Publishers Weekly, April 7, 2003, review of Red Ant House, p. 46.

Washington Post Book World, March 25, 2007, review of Yellowcake, p. 6.

ONLINE

Bookreporter.com,http://www.bookreporter.com/ (August 11, 2007), Stephen M. Deusner, review of Red Ant House.

Homestead Review Online (literary magazine of Hartnell College), http://hartnell.edu/ (August 11, 2007), Kathryn Petrucelli, interview (transcript of interview recorded July 14, 2003).

Literary Potpourri,http://www.literarypotpourri.com/ (August 11, 2007), Laura M. Schneider, review of Red Ant House.

Northern Arizona University Department of English Web site,http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/ (August 11, 2007), faculty biography.