Payne, Holly

PERSONAL: Female. Education: University of Southern California, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—San Francisco, CA. Office—California College of the Arts, 1111 8th St., San Francisco, CA 94107-2247; Academy of Art University, 79 New Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94105. E-mail—holly@holly-payne.com.

CAREER: Novelist, screenwriter, and educator. California College of the Arts, San Francisco, mber; Academy of Art University, San Francisco, faculty member. Founder of the Skywriter Series Fiction Workshops and Skywriter Ranch, Crested Butte, CO.

AWARDS, HONORS: Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, 2002, Border's Original Voices Book, 2002, Contra Costa Times Book Club selection, 2003, all for The Virgin's Knot.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

The Virgin's Knot, Dutton (New York, NY) 2002.

The Sound of Blue, Dutton (New York, NY) 2005.

Also author of screenplays.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A novel set in Amish country.

SIDELIGHTS: Novelist and screenwriter Holly Payne grew up in Amish country before moving to San Francisco, California, where she has taught writing and screenwriting to college students at various art institutes. While working as a teacher, Payne published two novels, The Virgin's Knot and The Sound of Blue, within the remarkably short time span of three years. Interestingly, both novels are set in foreign locales.

Payne's first novel, The Virgin's Knot, is set in a tiny village in the Taurus mountains in Turkey during the 1950s, right around the time Turkey was becoming a Republic. Thus, as the story begins, the tiny village is experiencing its first exposure to modern influences. Within this framework is the story's main character, Nurdane, a young woman who weaves Turkish rugs that are renowned for their beauty. She learned her art after polio damaged her legs but left her hands nimble.

The villagers also attribute magical powers to Nur-dane's handiwork, such as the ability to heal the sick or produce male children for the young brides who own them. The irony of the latter "magic" is that it is thought to be derived from Nurdane's virginity. While her rugs are made for brides, Nurdane herself will never become one if she wishes to maintain her livelihood. The plot, then, naturally becomes more complicated when two Westerners enter Nurdane's life as love interests. Nurdane finds herself in a position to choose between the love of her doctor (of whom her father approves), the love of an anthropologist visiting the town, or her love for weaving beautiful, magical carpets.

Critics noted many positive aspects and some negative aspects in the novel. A Publishers Weekly reviewer felt that Payne inserts too much expository writing into the story, which then "overcomplicates an already intricate plot." Also commenting on the book's dense story, albeit in a far more approving tone, Kliatt critic Nola Thiess noted that the "richness of Payne's writing and images … are as complex as the designs of the rugs Nurdane creates." A Kirkus Reviews contributor, however, had a very different perception of the novel's complexity, stating that "Payne keeps the story simple, elemental, and reserved." The contributor also felt that these very attributes "distance the reader from the inner lives of the characters." Far more positive in his summation was Booklist critic Neal Wyatt, who called The Virgin's Knot "a beautifully written and evocative fable."

Payne's second novel, The Sound of Blue, is predominantly set in a Hungarian refugee camp for Croations during the Balkan wars. The refugees are portrayed mostly through the eyes of Sarah Foster, an American who works at the camp teaching English to its inhabitants. The novel also features many threads that tell the stories of individual refugees. Payne "uses music … to twine together all of their stories," stated Leann Restaino in a Library Journal review. Other reviewers praised the book's subject matter and Payne's approach to it. A Publishers Weekly contributor and Booklist reviewer Deborah Donovan had nearly identical reactions to The Sound of Blue. While the former noted Payne's "flourishes of figurative language and poetic musings on the nature of refuge and memory," the latter commented that the author "laces her tale with poetic musings on the healing and redemptive power of love."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2002, Neal Wyatt, review of The Virgin's Knot, p. 1687; October 15, 2004, Deborah Donovan, review of The Sound of Blue, p. 391.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2002, review of The Virgin's Knot, p. 764.

Kliatt, July, 2003, Nola Theiss, review of The Virgin's Knot, p. 26.

Library Journal, November 1, 2004, Leann Restaino, review of The Sound of Blue, p. 76.

Publishers Weekly, May 26, 2002, review of The Virgin's Knot, p. 31; December 13, 2004, review of The Sound of Blue, p. 44.

ONLINE

Holly Payne Home Page, http://www.holly-payne.com (March 27, 2006).