Mary Bucci Bush
Mary Bucci Bush | |
|---|---|
| Born | Canastota, New York, U.S. |
| Education | State University of New York at Buffalo Syracuse University |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Notable works | Sweet Hope |
| Website | |
| www | |
Mary Bucci Bush is an American author and has been a professor of English and creative writing at California State University, Los Angeles.
Early life and education
Mary Bucci Bush was born and raised in Canastota, New York. The family name was changed to Bush by American schoolteachers who had trouble pronouncing Bucci.[1]
After receiving a B.A. in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1972, Bush earned her M.A. and D.A. in creative writing at Syracuse University, where she studied under George P. Elliott and Raymond Carver.[2][3]
Career
Academia
Bush taught at Syracuse University and Hamilton College. In 1984 she co-founded the Community Writers Project in Syracuse with fellow novelist Rachel Guido deVries.[1]
As of 2017 she was professor of English and creative writing at California State University, Los Angeles.[4]
Writing
Her fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Black Warrior Review, and Italian Americana; and in anthologies such as The Voices We Carry: Recent Italian American Women's Fiction (Guernica, 2007),[5] Growing Up Ethnic in America (Penguin, 1999),[6] and The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writers on Food and Culture (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2017).[4]
The novel Sweet Hope (Guernica Editions, 2011), tells the story of Italian and African-American families living and working together on a Mississippi Delta cotton plantation in the early 1900s. It was inspired by the experiences of Bush's grandmother, who worked on the Sunnyside Plantation in Arkansas as a child.[5][7]
Recognition
Bush won a PEN/Nelson Algren Award for her collection of short stories, A Place of Light, in 1987;[8] a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship in 1995;[4] and the Tillie Olsen Book Prize from the Working Class Studies Association for her novel, Sweet Hope, in 2012.[9]
References
- ^ a b Romano, Anne T. (2010). Daughters of Italy: The Journey of Italian American Women Writers. XLibris. pp. 60โ61. ISBN 9781453547823.
- ^ "About Mary Bucci Bush". MaryBucciBush.com. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
- ^ "Mary Bucci Bush". Guernica Editions. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
- ^ a b c Giunta, Edvige (2017). The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writers on Food and Culture. Feminist Press at CUNY. p. 278. ISBN 9781936932108.
- ^ a b Bona, Mary Jo (2007). The Voices We Carry: Recent Italian American Women's Fiction. Utp Distribution. pp. 338โ339. ISBN 9781550710991.
- ^ Gillan, Maria Mazziotti (1999). Growing Up Ethnic in America: Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American. Penguin. p. 242. ISBN 9781101640203.
- ^ Vernon, Thom (2012). "Sweet Hope in Delta: An Interview with Mary Bucci Bush on Italians, African Americans, and Ghosts". Arkansas Review. 43 (3): 181โ195.
- ^ "Books by Mary Bush and Complete Book Reviews". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
- ^ "Previous WCSA Award Winners". Working Class Studies Association. Archived from the original on December 11, 2017. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
External links
- Official website
- Mary Bucci Bush in libraries (WorldCat catalog)