Agate Nesaule
{{short description|Latvian writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Agate Nesaule
| image = AgateNesaule1956.png
| alt = A smiling young white woman, hair in a ponytail
| caption = Agate Nesaule, from the 1956 yearbook of Shortridge High School
| other_names = Agate Nesaule Krouse
| birth_name =
| birth_date = January 23, 1938
| birth_place = Nītaure, Latvia
| death_date = June 29, 2022
| death_place = Madison, Wisconsin
| occupation = Writer, college professor
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works = Woman in Amber (1995)
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
| awards = American Book Award (1996)
}}
Agate Nesaule (January 23, 1938 – June 29, 2022) was a Latvian-born American writer and professor of English on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. Her 1995 memoir A Woman in Amber won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1996.{{Cite news |last=Holt |first=Patricia |date=1996-07-14 |title=Award Winners Reflect Diversity |pages=216, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116302203/between-the-lines-continued/ 225] |work=The San Francisco Examiner |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116302332/award-winners-reflect/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Early life and education
Nesaule was born in Nītaure,{{Cite news |date=3 July 2022|title=Mūžībā devusies rakstniece, profesore Agate Nesaule|publisher=Delfi|url=https://www.delfi.lv/kultura/43116588/in-memoriam/54510094/muziba-devusies-rakstniece-profesore-agate-nesaule|access-date=14 December 2024|language=lv}} Latvia, as the daughter of Peteris V. Nesaule and Valda Nesaule.{{Cite news |date=1978-12-15 |title=Nesaule, Valda (death notice) |pages=64 |work=The Indianapolis Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116302002/nesaule-valda-death-notice/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her father was a Lutheran minister; her mother earned a Ph.D in her seventies.{{Cite news |date=1996-09-21 |title=Rev. Peteris V. Nesaule, 88, founder, minister of Latvian Lutheran Church |pages=47 |work=The Indianapolis Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116280239/rev-peteris-v-nesaule-88-founder/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |via=Newspapers.com}} As a little girl, Nesaule fled the wartime upheaval with her family, and spent time as a child prisoner in Germany during World War II. The family lived in a displaced persons camp, and moved to the United States in 1950, when she was 12 years old.{{Cite book |last=Jirgens |first=Karl E. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6YZwiQT2uqkC&dq=Agate+Nesaule&pg=PA360 |title=Baltic Postcolonialism |date=2006 |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=978-90-420-1959-1 |editor-last=Kelertas |editor-first=Violeta |pages=360 |language=en |chapter=Labyrinths of Meaning in Aleksandrs Pelecis' Siberia Book and Agate Nesaul's Woman in Amber: A Postmodern/Postcolonial Reading}}
Nesaule attended Shortridge High School,Shortridge High School, Annual (1956 yearbook): 129. via Ancestry and won a statewide Latin competition in Indiana; the prize was a four-year scholarship to Indiana University Bloomington.{{Cite web |title=Agate Nesaule Obituary (2022) - Madison, Wisconsin - Madison.com |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/madison/name/agate-nesaule-obituary?id=35693939 |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=Legacy.com}}{{Cite news |date=1956-09-16 |title=Isadore Feibleman Scholarship Students Enter Collegiate Life |pages=69 |work=The Indianapolis Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116281817/isadore-feibleman-scholarship-students/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |via=Newspapers.com}} She earned a bachelor's and a master's degree at Indiana, and completed doctoral studies in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.{{Cite web |date=2022-07-20 |title=In Memoriam: Agate Nesaule, 1938-2022 |url=https://www.wiareport.com/2022/07/in-memoriam-agate-nesaule-1938-2022/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=Women In Academia Report}} Her dissertation was titled "The Feminism of Doris Lessing" (1972).
Career
Nesaule was a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater from 1963 to 1996. She and Ruth Schauer founded the school's women's studies program in 1972. Her memoir A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile (1995){{Cite news |last=Levine |first=Miriam |date=1995-12-17 |title=In the prison of memory |pages=219 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116281404/in-the-prison-of-memorymiriam-levine/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |via=Newspapers.com}} won the American Book Award in 1996.{{Cite journal |last=Verdins |first=Karlis |date=2021-04-03 |title=History, trauma, and narrative perspective in A Woman in Amber by Agate Nesaule |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01629778.2020.1850486 |journal=Journal of Baltic Studies |language=en |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=179–191 |doi=10.1080/01629778.2020.1850486 |s2cid=229509911 |issn=0162-9778|url-access=subscription }} She also published two novels, and academic articles.{{Cite news |last=Moe |first=Doug |date=2009-05-01 |title=A lifetime of writer's block lifted |pages=2 |work=Wisconsin State Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116281473/a-lifetime-of-writers-block/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}
In 1998, Nesaule was an invited guest when President Bill Clinton signed the agreement required to allow Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia to join NATO.{{Cite news |last=Martell |first=Chris |date=1998-01-24 |title=From Exile to Welcome |pages=21 |work=Wisconsin State Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116281170/from-exile-to-welcomechris-martell/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 2019, she wrote in an essay, "I have lived in the United States for 70 years. I am an American citizen in love with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I am immensely grateful for all that this country has given me, yet I feel I do not really belong here."{{Cite web |last=Nesaule |first=Agate |date=August 28, 2019 |title=Agate Nesaule: Exile is irreversible |url=https://captimes.com/opinion/column/agate-nesaule-exile-is-irreversible/article_e4575b8c-2895-5a7a-a8e8-2ba0312c1f50.html |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=The Cap Times |language=en}}
Publications
- "A Doris Lessing Checklist" (1973){{Cite journal |last=Krouse |first=Agate Nesaule |date=1973 |title=A Doris Lessing Checklist |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1207476 |journal=Contemporary Literature |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=590–597 |doi=10.2307/1207476 |jstor=1207476 |issn=0010-7484|url-access=subscription }}
- "Women and Crime: Sexism in Allingham, Sayers, and Christie" (1974, with Margot Peters){{Cite journal |last1=Peters |first1=Margot |last2=Krouse |first2=Agate Nesaule |date=1974 |title=Women and Crime: Sexism in Allingham, Sayers, and Christie |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43468591 |journal=Southwest Review |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=144–152 |jstor=43468591 |issn=0038-4712}}
- "Why Women Kill" (1975, with Margot Peters){{Cite journal |last1=Krouse |first1=Agate Nesaule |last2=Peters |first2=Margot |date=1975-06-01 |title=Why Women Kill |url=https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1975.tb00584.x |journal=Journal of Communication |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=98–105 |doi=10.1111/j.1460-2466.1975.tb00584.x |pmid=1123461 |issn=0021-9916|url-access=subscription }}
- "Doris Lessing's Feminist Plays" (1976){{Cite journal |last=Krouse |first=Agate Nesaule |date=1976-11-01 |title=Doris lessing's feminist plays |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/17449857608588411 |journal=World Literature Written in English |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=305–322 |doi=10.1080/17449857608588411 |issn=0093-1705|url-access=subscription }}
- "Murder in Academe" (1977, with Margot Peters){{Cite journal |last1=Krouse |first1=Agate Nesaule |last2=Peters |first2=Margot |date=1977 |title=Murder in Academe |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43469001 |journal=Southwest Review |volume=62 |issue=4 |pages=371–378 |jstor=43469001 |issn=0038-4712}}
- "What Happened to Aspazija? In Search of Feminism in Latvia" (1993){{Cite journal |last=Nesaule |first=Agate |date=1992-10-01 |title=What happened to Aspazija? In search of feminism in Latvia |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&issn=03114198&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA13795829&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Hecate |language=English |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=112–126}}
- A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile (1995){{Cite book |last=Nesaule |first=Agate |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/36163412 |title=A woman in amber : healing the trauma of war and exile |date=1997 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0-14-026190-7 |location=New York |oclc=36163412}}
- In Love with Jerzy Kosinski: A Novel (2010){{Cite book |last=Nesaule |first=Agate |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/379424994 |title=In love with Jerzy Kosinski : a novel |date=2009 |publisher=Terrace Books |isbn=978-0-299-23133-0 |location=Madison, Wis. |oclc=379424994}}
- "Feminism and Art in Fay Weldon's Novels" (2013){{Cite journal |last=Krouse |first=Agate Nesaule |date=1978-12-01 |title=Feminism and Art in Fay Weldon's Novels |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00111619.1978.10690187 |journal=Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=5–20 |doi=10.1080/00111619.1978.10690187 |issn=0011-1619|url-access=subscription }}
- Lost Midsummers: A Novel of Women's Friendship in Exile (2019)
- "Exile is irreversible" (2019)
Personal life
Nesaule married a fellow English professor, Harry Krouse. They had a son, Boris. They divorced. She died in Madison, Wisconsin in 2022, at the age of 84.
References
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Category:20th-century Latvian women
Category:American women writers
Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Category:American women novelists
Category:Indiana University Bloomington alumni
Category:American people of Latvian descent
Category:Latvian emigrants to the United States