Joan Lucille Chase (November 26, 1936 – April 17, 2018) was an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

Biography

Joan Strausbaugh was born in

Wooster, Ohio Wooster ( ) is a city in Wayne County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located in northeastern Ohio, the city lies approximately south-southwest of Cleveland, southwest of Akron and west of Canton. The population was 27,232 at the ...

in 1936; she and her family moved frequently due to her father's academic career. Joan graduated from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

''magna cum laude''. From 1980 to 1984, she was an assistant director of the Ragdale Foundation. Chase also taught periodically at the

Iowa Writers Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2. ...

and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Literary career

Chase's first novel, ''

During the Reign of the Queen of Persia ''During the Reign of the Queen of Persia'' is the first novel by American writer Joan Chase. On its publication in 1983 it won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. The story is told from the perspective of the four granddaughters of the "Queen ...

'' was published in 1983 when she was 47 years old. She won the PEN/Hemingway Prize for First Fiction by an American author. The book was republished in 2014 by

New York Review Books New York Review Books (NYRB) is the publishing division of ''The New York Review of Books''. Its imprints are New York Review Books Classics, New York Review Books Collections, The New York Review Children's Collection, New York Review Comics, ...

with an introduction by

Meghan O'Rourke Meghan O'Rourke (born 1976) is an American nonfiction writer, poet and critic. Background and education O'Rourke was born on January 26, 1976, in Brooklyn, New York. The eldest of the three children of Paul and Barbara O'Rourke, she had two yo ...

Personal life

In 1959, Strausbaugh married Richard Chase, an economist; they had two children together, a son and a daughter. Joan and Richard later divorced. She married Alexander Solomita in 2009. Chase died on 17 April 2018 at a nursing home in Needham, Massachusetts, at the age of 81. She was suffering from both

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

and

Lewy Body Lewy bodies are the inclusion bodies – abnormal aggregations of protein – that develop inside neurons affected by Parkinson's disease (PD), the Lewy body dementias ( Parkinson's disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies (DL ...

disease.

Awards

* 1983,

PEN/Hemingway Prize The PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction is awarded annually to a full-length novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a full-length book of fiction. The award is named after Ernest Hemingway and fun ...

* 1984,

Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize is a literary award presented annually for the "best book-length work of prose fiction" by an American woman. The award has been given by the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies and the Depar ...

* 1987,

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, ...

* 1990,

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

Works

* * *

References

External links

*
Whiting Foundation Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Joan 1936 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American novelists People from Wooster, Ohio University of Maryland, College Park alumni Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winners American women novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women