Vonnegut, Laureen

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Vonnegut, Laureen

(Laureen G. Vonnegut)

PERSONAL: Hobbies and other interests: Traveling, running.

ADDRESSES: Home— Bucharest, Romania. E-mail— lgvonnegut@gmail.com.

CAREER: Writer and screenwriter.

WRITINGS

Oasis (novel), Counterpoint (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of short stories to various publications, including The Nerve, Book of Writing Women, and EM3 magazine. Screenwriter (and coproducer) for short film, Stuff That Bear!, and feature-length film Anybody Love. Screenwriter (and director) for short film, Cuckoo and Ice Cream

SIDELIGHTS: Laureen Vonnegut is an American with a penchant for traveling. Prior to living in Bucharest, Romania, Vonnegut lived in England, California, Mexico, Bulgaria, and Hungary. She has written several screenplays, one of which, Stuff That Bear!, won fifteen awards and played at various film festivals around the world, including the Cannes Film Festival. Vonnegut, a cousin of celebrated author Kurt Vonnegut, is also active publishing short stories in various publications. Her first book, however, was not published until 2006. Oasis presents Lili, a young Russian girl sold into sexual slavery to a Moroccan, and her attempts to free herself while encountering a cast of characters in the Sahara.

Donna Seaman, writing in Booklist, called the “harrowing and farcical” tale “archly theatrical, sometimes poetic, [and] always enigmatic.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews labeled it “a novel as dry and empty as the desert in which it is set.” A reviewer writing in Publishers Weekly worried that “readers not versed in the region’s political conflicts will find the motivations difficult to track.” Lamia Doumato’s review in Library Journal, however, noted that the story “is skillfully woven together” and that the style and scenes “reflect Vonnegut’s experiences as a screenwriter.”