Bette Howland (January 28, 1937 – December 13, 2017) was an American writer and literary critic. She wrote for ''Commentary Magazine''.

Personal life

Born Bette Lee Sotonoff to Sam Sotonoff, a machinist, and Jessie Berger, a homemaker, she focused much of her work on her native

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, though she left the city in 1975. In 1956, she married Howard Howland, a biologist. The couple had two sons but later separated and divorced, though she kept his surname. She worked as a librarian and did editorial work for the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including '' The Chicago Manual of Style' ...

Critical reappraisal

In 2013 editor

Brigid Hughes Brigid Hughes is a Brooklyn, New York-based literary editor. Hughes is best known for assuming the executive editor role at literary journal ''The Paris Review'' after the death of founding editor George Plimpton and for founding the literary ma ...

found Howland's book ''W-3'' and decided to include some of Howland's work in an issue of the literary journal ''

A Public Space ''A Public Space'' is a nonprofit triquarterly English-language literary magazine based in Brooklyn, New York. First published in April 2006, ''A Public Space'' publishes fiction, poetry, essays and art. The magazine's Focus portfolios have exam ...

'' dedicated to obscure and forgotten women writers. ''

'' eventually decided to publish some of Howland's stories through their imprint in 2019, under the title '' Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage''.

Awards

* 1984:

MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

* 1978:

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

Works

*''The iron year'', University of Iowa, 1967 *''W-3'', Viking Press, 1974; *''Blue in Chicago'', Harper & Row, 1978; *''Things to Come and Go: Three Stories'', Knopf, 1983; *''Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'', Brooklyn, NY : A Public Space Books, 2019, ISBN 978-0-9982675-0-0

Death

Howland died on December 13, 2017, in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

, aged 80. She had multiple sclerosis and dementia. She was survived by her two sons, Jacob and Frank; a sister, Mrs. Rochelle Altman; five grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howland, Bette 1937 births 2017 deaths Jewish American writers American women short story writers American short story writers Deaths from dementia in Oklahoma Deaths from multiple sclerosis MacArthur Fellows 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women