McCoy, Maureen 1949–

PERSONAL: Born December 18, 1949, in Des Moines, IA; daughter of John Robert and Frances (a buyer and purchasing agent) McCoy. Education: Attended Rock-ford College, 1968–69; Denver University, B.A., 1972; University of Iowa, M.F.A., 1983.

ADDRESSES: Home—Ithaca, NY, and Taos, NM. Office—Department of English, 271 Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-3201. Agent—Anne Edelstein, Edelstein Literary Agency, 20 W. 22nd St., New York, NY, 10010. E-mail—mem35@cornell.edu.

CAREER: Westinghouse, Inc., Iowa City, IA, academic test scorer, 1977–79, 1980; Iowa State Historical Society, Iowa City, editorial assistant, 1981–82; Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, resident fellow, 1983–84; Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI, writer in residence and lecturer in literature, summer, 1984; Fine Arts Work Center, resident fellow, 1984–85; State University of New York at Albany, Albert Schweitzer fellow in the humanities, 1987–89; Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, began as associate professor in the English department, became professor, c. 1989–, director of creative writing program, 1995, 1997. Visiting writer and lecturer, Vermont College, 1988; MacDowell Colony resident, 1983; Helene Wurlitzer Foundation resident, 1996, 1998; visiting writer, University of New Mexico Taos Summer Writers' Conference, 2002, 2003; also former resident for two years at the Fine Arts Work Center, and at the Hawthornden International Center for Writers, Edinburgh, Scotland. Member, Cornell Council for the Arts, 1995, 1997; member, Associated Writing Programs.

AWARDS, HONORS: Iowa Humanities Board grant, 1982; Fine Arts Work Center Writing fellowships, 1983–84, 1984–85; James A. Michener Award, Copernicus Society, 1985, for work on her first novel; Albert Schweitzer fellowship in the humanities, State University of New York at Albany, 1987–89; Helen and Robert Appel Fellowship in the Humanities, Cornell University, 1995.

WRITINGS:

Walking after Midnight (novel), Poseidon/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1985.

Summertime (novel), Poseidon/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1987.

Divining Blood (novel), Poseidon/Simon & Schuster (New York. NY), 1992.

Junebug (novel), Leapfrog Press (Wellfleet, MA), 2004.

Also author of monologues for the stage, including My Bonny Elvis, performed in Tennessee and Germany. Contributor to books, including Book Lust, edited by Nancy Pearl, Sasquatch Books, 2003; Now Write! Fiction Writing Exercises for Today's Best Writers and Teachers, edited by Sherry Ellis, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin 2006. Contributor of stories to periodicals, including Epoch, New Letters, Shankpainter, Epoch, Playgirl, Writers Forum, Great River Review, and Iowa Journal of Literary Studies. Former writer and editorial assistant, Palimpsest.

SIDELIGHTS: Novelist Maureen McCoy once told CA: "By writing fiction I hope to tap free a recognizable smidgen from the broad hum of experience, to extend the grace of a lover's heart to storytelling, word by word. Walking after Midnight was a galloping urgency, a scramble for and pursuit of hope as my world was expanding. The first kid. Now the second book isn't as hectic; it inhabits that larger world.

"In both books there are characters who begin on the outs. They move from passivity to action, forego fear for faith, favor community over isolation, if just a wee bit. I like to think that people can go wild and uphill at the same time. A dime store Elvis poster just might save the day. An eighty-five-year-old's elopement may save a family. I write, believing this is so. Anything good is possible."

In her third novel, Divining Blood, McCoy tells the story of Delana Mae Walsh, who runs away from home at the age of seventeen and quickly works her way up to piloting a Mississippi River barge. Delana Mae gives birth to a daughter and soon plans to leave the barge and her daughter's father, Jonnie Red, for the home she once fled. Her homecoming, however, leads to the renewal of family grudges and the revelation of new secrets. Jeff Giles, writing in Entertainment Weekly referred to the author as "a superb miniaturist," as reflected in particular scenes in the novel. A Publishers Weekly contributor further wrote: "This is a story about redeeming the past, and McCoy works with reasonably good story lines and characters."

Junebug focuses on teenage narrator Junebug Host, a high-school senior whose mother is in prison. The story revolves around Junebug's discovery of past sexual abuse and why her mother killed their trailer-park neighbor, discoveries that lead Junebug into a downward spiral. Jennifer Mattson, writing in Booklist, noted that "Junebug's wrenching struggles to manage her pain are touching." A contributor to O: The Oprah Magazine suggested that the "swift, edgy prose mirrors the impatient longings of a child-woman's heart."