Gwaltney, Doris 1932–

Personal

Born 1932, in Isle of Wight, VA; married Atwill Gwaltney, 1959; children: three.

Addresses

Home and office—1500 Magruder Rd., Smithfield, VA 23430. E-mail—dorisgwaltney@verizon.net.

Career

Writer. Cypress Creek Press, Charlottesville, VA, founder, c. 1995. Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA, coordinator of writers' conference, until 1995, and teacher in Lifelong Learning Society. Lecturer and instructor at creative writing workshops.

Member

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (Mid-Atlantic chapter), Authors Guild, Virginia Writers Club, Poetry Society of Virginia.

Writings

Shakespeare's Sister (adult novel), Cypress Creek Press (Charlottesville, VA), 1996.

George Purdie, Merchant of Smithfield (nonfiction), 1996.

Duncan Browdie, Gent (adult novel), Pearl Line Press, 2002.

Homefront, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2006.

A Mirror in Time: History in First Person, Script Works Press, 2007.

Contributor of short fiction to periodicals, including Greensboro Review and Poet's Domain.

Sidelights

Author and educator Doris Gwaltney first gained critical attention with her adult novel Shakespeare's Sister, a work of historical fiction that imagines what life might have been like for a talented sister of noted Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare. Inspired by a quote from Virginia Woolf's novel A Room of One's Own as well as by her own in-depth study of Shakespeare's works, Gwaltney worked on the manuscript for her first novel for two years. Unable to place the book with a publisher, she then decided to establish a small press, Cypress Creek, and publish Shakespeare's Sister herself. With the success of her first book, Gwaltney has gone on to write several other books, including the young-adult novel Homefront.

Homefront is set during World War II and describes the rivalry between two cousins. Margaret Ann is an American girl who assumed she would finally have her own bedroom once older sister Elizabeth left home for college. However, the room is now given to Courtney, Margaret Ann's cousin and a refugee of the London blitz. Hiding her fear and loneliness by being obnoxious and antagonistic toward her cousin, the newcomer worms her way into the hearts of the people Margaret Ann loves, and it takes both cleverness and a little growing up for Margaret Ann to get herself back in everyone's good graces.

"Gwaltney provides vivid character portrayals," wrote Carolyn Phelan in her Booklist review of Homefront. Nancy P. Reeder, writing in School Library Journal, praised the novelist's "careful characterization," and concluded that her "perceptive novel focuses on how war affects the people who are left at home—their fears, dreams, hardships, and, above all, hopes." Although a Kirkus Reviews contributor maintained that the novel's narrative is broken by descriptions of how the war changed life in the United States, the critic nonetheless concluded that Gwaltney's use of "language and dialogue evoke the setting beautifully."

In an interview with Bill Glose for Grit, Gwaltney provided her advice for aspiring writers. "If there's any way you can get your life structured so that you write every day then I think that's when success comes to you. Inspiration is real, but it doesn't come to people who haven't worked for it."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July 1, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Homefront, p. 56.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October, 2006, Elizabeth Bush, review of Homefront, p. 71.

Grit, March 16, 2003, Bill Glose, "Woman Published after 27 Years," p. 8.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2006, review of Homefront, p. 633.

School Library Journal, July, 2006, Nancy P. Reeder, review of Homefront, p. 103.

Virginian-Pilot, January 7, 1996, Bill Ruehlmann, "Knowing the Bard Helps in Creating His Sister," p. J3; February 21, 1996, Allison T. Williams, "Smithfield Writer Creates a Sister for Shakespeare," p. 12; June 18, 2006, Phyllis Speidell, "Did You Know That Local Author Is behind Homefront?," p. SU2.