Sara Paretsky

{{Infobox writer

| name = Sara Paretsky

| image = SaraParetsky.jpg

| caption =

| pseudonym =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1947|6|8|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Ames, Iowa, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Novelist

| education = University of Kansas (BA)
University of Chicago (MBA, PhD){{cite news |title=REVELS TO PERFORM 'THE BALLAD OF SCAVENGER GULCH' ON JAN. 28–29 |publisher=States News Service |date=Jan 25, 2011 |access-date=Nov 22, 2011 |url=http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=News&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=BIC2&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CA247644165&mode=view&userGroupName=fairfax_main&jsid=ba7f9caafd3f7d2198df71cd5806a70b |id=Gale Document Number: GALE|A247644165 |format=fee, via Fairfax County Public Library}} Gale Biography In Context.

| period =

| genre = Crime fiction

| subject =

| movement =

| notableworks =

| spouse = {{marriage|S. Courtenay Wright|1976}}

| children = 3{{cite book |chapter=Sara Paretsky |title=St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers

|publisher=Gale |year=1996 |access-date=November 22, 2011 |url=http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=BIC2&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CK2406000432&mode=view&userGroupName=fairfax_main&jsid=02fc35723fa8e96616a5e5de4d9eff9b |id=Gale Document Number: GALE|K2406000432 |format=fee, via Fairfax County Public Library}} Gale Biography In Context.

| relatives = David (father), Mary (mother)

| website = {{URL|saraparetsky.com}}

}}

Sara Paretsky (born June 8, 1947) is an American author of detective fiction, best known for her novels focused on the protagonist V. I. Warshawski.

Life and career

Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa. Her father was a microbiologist and moved the family to Kansas in 1951 after taking a job at the University of Kansas, where Paretsky eventually graduated. The family rented an old farm house. Her relationship with her parents was strained; her mother was an alcoholic and her father was a harsh disciplinarian.Sarah Crown, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/07/sara-paretsky-interview-i-start-each-vi-warshawski-book-convinced-i-cant-do-it Sara Paretsky interview: ‘I start each VI Warshawski book convinced I can’t do it’], The Guardian, 7 August 2015.

After obtaining a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Kansas, she did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in 1968 to work there. She completed her AM (masters) degree at the University of Chicago in 1969 and completed a Ph.D. in history there in 1977; her dissertation was titled "The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New England Before the Civil War". She also earned an MBA in 1977 from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Her husband, Courtenay Wright, was a professor of physics at the University of Chicago; the two were together from 1970 until his death in 2018.Maureen O'Donnell, "Courtenay Wright, University of Chicago physicist, witness to D-Day, dead at 95", Chicago Sun Times, [https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/courtenay-wright-sara-paretsky-university-chicago-physicist-dday-witness-obituary/ Nov 26, 2018]

Paretsky is an alumna of the Ragdale Foundation.{{cite web | year = 2010 | url = http://www.ragdale.org/fictionoz | title = Ragdale Alumni: Writers – Fiction – O-Z | publisher = Ragdale Foundation website | access-date = February 15, 2010 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110718020204/http://www.ragdale.org/fictionoz | archive-date = July 18, 2011 | df = mdy-all }} She was to appear in an amateur light opera production in 2011.

The protagonist of all but two of Paretsky's novels is the female private investigator V.I. Warshawski, and the author is credited with transforming the role and image of women in the crime novel.Martin, Nora (1996). [http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/3/ ""In the business of believing women's stories": Feminism through detective fiction (Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton)"] (M.A. thesis) Wilfrid Laurier University{{cite book |last1=Kinsman |first1=Margaret |title=Sara Paretsky: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction |date=2016 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-0-7864-7187-4 |url=https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/sara-paretsky/ |access-date=15 July 2020}} The Winter 2007 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection is devoted to her work.{{cite web|url=http://staff.cua.edu/foxwell/Clues/About_Clues.html |title=Clues: A Journal of Detection |publisher=Staff.cua.edu |access-date=March 5, 2012}} She is also considered the founding mother of Sisters in Crime, an organization that supports and promotes women in the mystery field.{{cite web|last=Roberts|first=Lora|title=A History of Sisters in Crime|url=http://www.sistersincrime.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=5|access-date=28 November 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120825145544/http://www.sistersincrime.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=5|archive-date=August 25, 2012|df=mdy-all}}

Bibliography

=Novels=

Indemnity Only (1982) {{ISBN|0385272138}}
Deadlock (1984) {{ISBN|0385279337}}
Killing Orders (1985) {{ISBN|068804820X}}
Bitter Medicine (1987) {{ISBN|0688064485}}
Blood Shot (1988) {{ISBN|0440500354}} (Published in the UK as Toxic Shock)
Burn Marks (1990) {{ISBN|0385298927}}
Guardian Angel (1992) {{ISBN|0385299311}}
Tunnel Vision (1994) {{ISBN|038529932X}}
Ghost Country (1998) {{ISBN|9780385333368}} (non-Warshawski novel)
Hard Time (1999) {{ISBN|0385313632}}
Total Recall (2001) {{ISBN|0385313667}}
Blacklist (2003) {{ISBN|0399150854}}
Fire Sale (2005) {{ISBN|9780739455944}}
Bleeding Kansas (2008) {{ISBN|9780399154058}} (non-Warshawski novel)
Hardball (2009) {{ISBN|9781101133828}}
Body Work (2010) {{ISBN|9780399156748}}
Breakdown (2012) {{ISBN|9781101554074}}
Critical Mass (2013) {{ISBN|9781101636503}}
Brush Back (2015) {{ISBN|9780399160578}}
Fallout (2017) {{ISBN|9781473624337}}
Shell Game (2018) {{ISBN|9780062435866}}[https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/shell-game Reviewed by Elena Hartwell in New York Journal of Books, 16 October 2018]
Dead Land (2020) {{ISBN|9780062435927}}
Overboard (2022) {{ISBN|9780063010888}}
Pay Dirt (2024) {{ISBN|9780063010932}}

=Short story collections=

Windy City Blues, Delacorte (1995). {{ISBN|0385315023}}.
(Published in the UK as V.I. for Short)
A Taste of Life and Other Stories (1995), London: Penguin. {{ISBN|0146000404}}
Love & Other Crimes (2020). ISBN 9780062915542

=eBooks=

Photo Finish (2000). {{ISBN|9781101537510}}
V.I. x 2 (2002) includes short stories "Photo Finish" & "Publicity Stunts".
V.I. x 3 (2011) includes both stories from V.I. x 2 and "A Family Sunday in the Park". {{ISBN|9781257416448}}

=Non-fiction=

Case Studies in Alternative Education (1975). Chicago Center for New Schools.
Writing in an Age of Silence (2007). {{ISBN|9781844671229}}
Words, Works, and Ways of Knowing: The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New England Before the Civil War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.

=As editor=

Eye of a Woman (1990). New York: Delacorte Press;
as A Woman's Eye: New Stories by the Best Women Crime Writers (1991). London: Virago.
Women on the Case (1997). {{ISBN|9780440223252}};
as Woman's Other Eye (1996). London: Virago.
Sisters on the Case (2007). {{ISBN|9780451222398}}

Awards and recognition

1986 Anthony Award nomination for best novel, Killing Orders{{cite web |url=http://www.bouchercon.info/nominees.html |title=Bouchercon World Mystery Convention : Anthony Awards Nominees |publisher=Bouchercon.info |date=October 2, 2003 |access-date=March 5, 2012 |archive-date=February 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207060829/http://www.bouchercon.info/nominees.html |url-status=dead }}
1989 Anthony Award nomination for best novel, Blood Shot
1992 Anthony Award winner of best short story collection, A Woman's Eye{{cite web |url=http://www.bouchercon.info/history.html |title=Bouchercon World Mystery Convention : Anthony Awards and History |publisher=Bouchercon.info |access-date=March 5, 2012 |archive-date=September 25, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070925053237/http://www.bouchercon.info/history.html |url-status=dead }}
2002 Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement by the Crime Writers' Association.
2004 Gold Dagger Award for Blacklist by the Crime Writers' Association.
2011 Anthony Award Lifetime Achievement Award winner
2011 Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America
2019 Mystery Writers of America Winner of Sue Grafton Memoriam, Shell GameEdgar Awards category list
2021 Mystery Writers of America Nomination for Sue Grafton Memoriam, Dead LandEdgar Awards category list

References

External links

{{Official website|http://www.saraparetsky.com}}
[http://www.blogtalkradio.com/modernsignedbooks/2017/05/17/msb--sara-paretsky-fallout Roger Nichols of Modern Signed Books interviews Sara Paretsky]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbRP6ftjFDU Interview with Sara Paretsky], Speaking of Mysteries TV Series (2001)
[https://archives.newberry.org/repositories/2/resources/429 Sara Paretsky papers] at The Newberry

Category:1947 births

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:American mystery writers

Category:American detective fiction writers

Category:American women novelists

Category:Cartier Diamond Dagger winners

Category:Living people

Category:Artists from Ames, Iowa

Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent

Category:University of Chicago alumni

Category:University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni