Joern, Pamela Carter 1948-

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Joern, Pamela Carter 1948-

PERSONAL:

Born 1948; married; husband's name Brad; children: two daughters. Education: University of Nebraska, B.A.; University of Nebraska, Omaha, M.S.; United Theological Seminary, M.A.; Hamline University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Minneapolis, MN. E-mail—info@pamelacarterjoern.com.

CAREER:

Writer and playwright. Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, MN, writing instructor. Director of My Green Eyes (rock opera).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Tamarack Award, for short story "Confessions"; Minnesota State Arts Board fellowship, 2001; Discover Great New Writers selection, Barnes & Noble, Inc., 2006; Alex Award, 2007.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Nancy J. Berneking) Re-Membering and Re-Imagining, Pilgrim Press (Cleveland, OH), 1995.

The Floor of the Sky ("Flyover Fiction" series), University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 2006.

Writer of six produced plays, including Whatever Happened to Alice James; contributor to literary journals, including Red Rock Review, South Dakota Review, Feminist Studies, Minnesota Monthly, Laurel Review, and Water-Stone Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

Pamela Carter Joern is the editor, with Nancy J. Berneking, of Re-Membering and Re-Imagining, a documentation of an ecumenical conference that took place in 1993, and its impact. The volume contains songs, poetry, prose, drama, dialogue, and satire from female contributors of all ages. Sonya A. Quitslund noted in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies: "Not a theological work, the collection sheds light on the conference's impact in bringing women theologians together to do work born out of women's experience."

Joern published stories in literary journals before writing her first novel, The Floor of the Sky. Set in the Nebraska Sandhills, this family saga of guilt and jealousy is the story of seventy-two-year-old widow Toby and her sister, Gertie, who live on the family ranch which they are in danger of losing. Gertie's husband, Walter, is in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Toby, whose relationship with her adopted flight-attendant daughter is strained, is grandmother to sixteen-year-old pregnant Lila, a city girl who comes to stay with Toby until the baby is born. George is a lifetime loyal ranch hand who has loved Toby without naming or acting on his feelings. George's brother David, who was Toby's first love, was shot and killed by her father during a car chase, and Toby's mother, who was in the car with her husband, died when he crashed their car. Other family secrets arise as the story progresses and Toby is torn about the impending adoption of Lila's baby.

"Joern's writing is beautiful, and the backdrop of the Nebraska Sand Hills is perfect for this often dark tale about a divided family," commented Marie Hashima Lofton for the Curled Up with a Good Book Web site. "While this story may come across to some as a highbrow literary novel, it pulls the reader in because of what everyone can relate to—family, relationships, and owning up to one's mistakes and one's past." A Publishers Weekly contributor called Joern's characters "stern as the land, and the world of her debut novel is sturdy and memorable."