Background
Blanche Boyd was born in 1945 in Charleston, South Carolina, United States.
Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States
Duke University
270 Mohegan Avenue, New London, CT 06320, United States
Connecticut College
Lambda Literary Award
(No matter how hard she tries, Ellen Burns will never be S...)
No matter how hard she tries, Ellen Burns will never be Scarlett O'Hara. As a little girl in South Carolina, she prefers playing Tarzan to playing Jane. As a teenage beauty queen she spikes her Cokes with spirits of ammonia and baffles her elders with her Freedom Riding sympathies. As a young woman in the 1960s and '70s, she hypnotizes her way to Harvard, finds herself as a lesbian, then very nearly loses herself to booze and shamans. And though the wry, rebellious, and vision-haunted heroine of this exhilarating novel may sometimes seem to be living a magnolia-scented Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman, Blanche McCrary Boyd's The Revolution Of Little Girls is a completely original arid captivating work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679738126/?tag=2022091-20
1991
("In 1970 I realized that the Sixties were passing me by. ...)
"In 1970 I realized that the Sixties were passing me by. I had never even smoked a joint, or slept with anyone besides my husband. A year later I had left Nicky, changed my name from Ellen to Rain, and moved to a radical lesbian commune in California named Red Moon Rising, where I was playing the Ten of Hearts in an outdoor production of Alice in Wonderland when two FBI agents arrived to arrest the Red Queen . . ." So begins Blanche McCrary Boyd's brilliantly raucous account of self-styled feminist outlaws, their desperate adventures and extraordinary fates. Ellen, the narrator of Boyd's previous novel, The Revolution of Little Girls, this time pierces the heart of the sexual revolution in her quest to find a woman hero or--by default--to become one. Ferociously paced, Terminal Velocity delineates six wonderfully engaging characters: Artemis Foote, for whom being rich, talented, and beautiful is a kind of game; Jordan, a messianic fugitive who becomes Ellen's lover; Amethyst Woman, a Marxist/Leninist dentist; Ross, a red-diaper baby and now a columnist for Ramparts; and Pearl, an art history professor turned hippie. At the center of this vortex is Ellen, prior to her transformation happily married and a rising young editor at a genteel publishing house in Boston. Together with these women, she is caught in the political and moral tailspin of the Sixties, living in a sexualized world-without-boundaries that leads them, eventually, to destruction, acceptance, and even redemption. Deadpan funny and exquisitely moving, Terminal Velocity brings Boyd's lyricism, humor, and depth to material largely unexplored in American literature.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679750320/?tag=2022091-20
(An Amazon Best Book of the Month in Literature and Fictio...)
An Amazon Best Book of the Month in Literature and Fiction The award-winning author of The Revolution of Little Girls and Terminal Velocity concludes her grand survey of political activism twenty years later with her provocative new novel Blanche McCrary Boyd’s first novel in twenty years continues the story of her protagonist Ellen Burns. When Tomb of the Unknown Racist opens in 1999, Ellen―now sober, haunted by her activist past, her failed relationships―is peacefully taking care of her demented mother in South Carolina. Ellen’s brother, Royce, was a celebrated novelist who, a decade earlier, saw his work adopted by racists and fell under the sway of white supremacy. Ellen thought him dead from a botched FBI raid on his compound. But when his estranged daughter turns up on the news claiming he might be responsible for kidnapping her two mixed-race children, Ellen travels to New Mexico to help her newfound niece. The book chronicles Ellen’s search for Royce, her descent into the dark abyss of the simmering race war in the country, and the confrontation that occurs when she learns the truth about her family’s past. Tomb of the Unknown Racist is a thrilling novel set in the shadow of the Oklahoma City bombing, the subculture of white supremacy, and deep state government. A family drama set against political and racial struggle, it is a tour de force end to a trilogy by a stunning writer whose work has offered a resonant survey of politics and activism across the American experience. "Part detective story, part spiritual quest, Tomb of the Unknown Racist explores the intricate world of the white supremacy movement, and the treacherous ways that racism shatters families and spreads its dark roots across America. . . A character both innocent and wise, searching and grounded, [Ellen Burns] sees the worst in the good, and the good in the worst. We need more 'old outlaws' like [her], who try to right the wrongs of the world, even when they’re impossible to change." ―Hannah Tinti, author of The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1640090673/?tag=2022091-20
Blanche Boyd was born in 1945 in Charleston, South Carolina, United States.
Boyd attended the Duke University.
Boyd has worked at the Connecticut College since 1982, as a teacher of creative writing.
She has written four novels: Nerves, Mourning the Death of Magic, The Revolution of Little Girls and Terminal Velocity, as well as a collection of essays titled The Redneck Way of Knowledge. She has also a large body of published articles, short fiction and screenplays to her credit.
Nowadays she is currently the Roman and Tatiana Weller Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at Connecticut College.
(An Amazon Best Book of the Month in Literature and Fictio...)
(No matter how hard she tries, Ellen Burns will never be S...)
1991("In 1970 I realized that the Sixties were passing me by. ...)
Boyd is a member of P.E.N., the Authors Guild, the Writers Guild of America and of Phi Beta Kappa.