Sara Paretsky

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.

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.

Paretsky is an alumna of the Ragdale Foundation. 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).
""In the business of believing women's stories": Feminism through detective fiction (Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton)"
' (M.A. thesis) Wilfrid Laurier University The Winter 2007 issue of ''Clues: A Journal of Detection'' is devoted to her work. She is also considered the founding mother of Sisters in Crime, an organization that supports and promotes women in the mystery field.

Bibliography

Novels

*'' Indemnity Only'' (1982)
*'' Deadlock'' (1984)
*''Killing Orders'' (1985)
*''Bitter Medicine'' (1987)
*'' Blood Shot'' (1988) (Published in the UK as ''Toxic Shock'')
*''Burn Marks'' (1990)
*''Guardian Angel'' (1992)
*''Tunnel Vision'' (1994)
*''Ghost Country'' (1998) (non-Warshawski novel)
*''Hard Time'' (1999)
*''Total Recall'' (2001)
*''Blacklist'' (2003)
*''Fire Sale'' (2005)
*''Bleeding Kansas'' (2008) (non-Warshawski novel)
*''Hardball'' (2009)
*''Body Work'' (2010)
*''Breakdown'' (2012)
*''Critical Mass'' (2013)
*''Brush Back'' (2015)
*''Fallout'' (2017)
*''Shell Game'' (2018)
*''Dead Land'' (2020)
*''Overboard'' (2022)
*''Pay Dirt'' (2024)

Short story collections

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

eBooks

* ''Photo Finish'' (2000).
* ''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".

Non-fiction

*''Case Studies in Alternative Education'' (1975). Chicago Center for New Schools.
*''Writing in an Age of Silence'' (2007).
*''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). ;
**as ''Woman's Other Eye'' (1996). London: Virago.
*''Sisters on the Case'' (2007).

Awards and recognition

* 1986 Anthony Award nomination for best novel, ''Killing Orders''
* 1989 Anthony Award nomination for best novel, '' Blood Shot''
* 1992 Anthony Award winner of best short story collection, ''A Woman's Eye''
* 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 Game''
* 2021 Mystery Writers of America Nomination for Sue Grafton Memoriam, ''Dead Land''Edgar Awards category list

References

External links

*

Roger Nichols of Modern Signed Books interviews Sara ParetskyInterview with Sara Paretsky
''Speaking of Mysteries TV Series'' (2001)
Sara Paretsky papers
at The Newberry

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paretsky, Sara
1947 births
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American mystery writers
American detective fiction writers
American women novelists
Cartier Diamond Dagger winners
Living people
Artists from Ames, Iowa
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
University of Chicago alumni
University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni
University of Kansas alumni
Novelists from Chicago
Jewish American novelists
Anthony Award winners
Edgar Award winners
American women mystery writers
Novelists from Iowa
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American Jews