© Lance Harkins
Rachel began writing as a young girl at seven or eight years old and had her first story published in the Mississippi Review when she was only eighteen. Her short fiction has appeared in, among others, Mademoiselle, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review and the Threepenny Review.
In 2004, Viking published Rachel’s first novel, This Side of Married, which chronicled the attempts of a well-meaning but pushy mother to manipulate the love lives of her three grown daughters. Penguin released it in Paperback in 2005. Her debut novel was received with rave reviews:
“Jane Austen's honey-and-vinegar spirit is alive and well in Rachel Pastan's delightful novel ... This Side of Married may mark its author's debut, but she has commanded the dance floor like a pro." Rosellen Brown, author of Before and After.
“Pastan deserves kudos for this funny, flinty first novel about an overbearing obstetrician intent on getting her three daughters well-married.” Carlin Romano, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“This Side of Married is the kind of smart, funny first novel you read with a perpetual grin, eager to learn the next plot twist, sad to turn the final page.” Steve McCauley, author of The Object of My Affection and True Enough.
Lady of the Snakes, published by Harcourt, and now available in paperback, also received remarkable praise:
Fresh Air's Maureen Corrigan picks Lady of the Snakes as Best Summer Reading of 2008.
Ann Packer, author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier calls it: “Both a clever academic novel and a cunning literary detective story, Lady of the Snakes is perhaps most remarkable in its unflinching and compassionate portrait of its heroine, a young woman struggling to manage the competing demands of marriage, motherhood and career. This is a marvelous, fearless book.”
In her interview with the Southeast Review, Rachel states: “When I started writing this book eleven years ago (!), there were very few books about the experience of life with small children, let alone novels where the ambivalence of working mothers was expressed.”
An essay by Rachel about Lady of the Snakes is posted on Powell's Books.com concerning the setting in Madison, Wisconsin.
When I asked Rachel to share her writing philosophy, she said, "I think it's important to tell a good story, to be truthful to the way life feels, and to use language beautifully."
Rachel has a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in fiction from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. She has received grants for her work from the Wisconsin Arts Board and the Delaware Arts Council. She was awarded the Arts and Letters Fiction Prize and the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award.
Upcoming events:
Rachel will join a panel on woman in fiction on Sunday July 12, 2009 at 8200 Germantown Avenue at 2:30 p.m. at the Chestnut Hill Book Festival.
She will also be doing a reading at a group event at the Borders Book Store in Bryn Mawr, PA on July 28, 2009 along with Ru Freeman, Lise Funderburg, Libby Mosier, Josh Weil, & Jim Zervanos. Click here for information and directions.
Lady of the Snakes as well as This Side of Married are available for purchase on her website, www.rachelpastan.com, Borders during her reading, Borders.com as well as Amazon.com.
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