“I
realized I'd never climb Everest but thought I could still write a book.”
– Sara Paretsky
Born in
Iowa on this date in 1947, Paretsky grew up in Kansas. Despite an inclination toward writing from an
early age – “I always wrote;” she said, “my first story was published in The American Girl when I was 11.” – she
earned a degree in Political Science from the University of Kansas. But, the pull toward writing was too strong
and at age 30 she took up the pen to write the novel Indemnity Only, creating a hard-boiled, crime-fighting female hero
in the process.
Today, Paretsky’s
protagonist V.I Warshawski is one of detective fiction’s best known. A Chicago-based
private investigator, Warshawski has appeared in all but two of Paretsky’s 20
novels and also has been brought to life on the big screen by actress Kathleen
Turner.
Paretsky
helped transform the role and image of women in the crime novel genre’, earning
Ms. Magazine’s “Woman of the Year”
award, and the British Crime Writers Gold Dagger Award and Cartier Diamond
Dagger Award for Lifetime Achievement.
She also had an entire issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection
devoted to her work. 
Beyond her novels,
Paretsky has written half-dozen nonfiction books and two short story
collections. Founder of Sisters in
Crime, an organization that supports and promotes women in the mystery writing field,
she has this simple advice for new writers:
“Write what you care about.”
Beyond her novels,
Paretsky has written half-dozen nonfiction books and two short story
collections. Founder of Sisters in
Crime, an organization that supports and promotes women in the mystery writing field,
she has this simple advice for new writers:
“Write what you care about.”
Share A Writer’s
Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.
No comments:
Post a Comment