Patricia Weaver Francisco

Background

Patricia Francisco was born in 1951, in Detroit, Michigan.

Education

Francisco received her Bachelor of Arts in journalism degree from the University of Michigan.

Career

Francisco began her writing career with the publication of Lunacy, a play based on the true story of thirteen women who, in the early 1960s, underwent rigorous training for the American space program - until their program was abruptly canceled, before any of them could go into space. A fictional look at the women's subsequent fates, the play, which was commissioned by the Women's Theatre Project, examines sexual discrimination and its consequences and voices hope that victims can find the strength to overcome obstacles to a meaningful life.

Francisco's second publication, the novel Cold Feet, also explores social issues, this time patriotism, morality, and social responsibility. The story follows the journey of Yoder, a Vietnam War draft dodger as he tries to return to his old life in the United States after six years in exile in Canada. Rudely surprised by the changes he finds, Yoder hits the road, dropping in on friends and family, experimenting with petty theft, and trying to come to terms with his past.

Francisco's next project, Village without Mirrors, is a documentary of Mexico's Tarascan Indians. Francisco's prose and her then-husband's pictures record encounters with the Tarascans, who, with their 2,500-year history, had until recently remained so isolated that their language is unique, apparently unrelated to any other.

Francisco followed this effort with her intensely personal Telling: A Memoir of Rape and Recovery, the author's terrifying, brutal rape and slow, painful recovery. In an online interview for Telling of Rape, Francisco described the book's title: "'Telling' is an expression I use for anyone's decision to make their true life visible to others. Having permission to talk about what is 'unspeakable' can transform the experience of rape for the survivor... Telling assigns shame to the crime rather than to the survivor." In addition, Francisco sees telling as a form of prevention: "If we aren't talking about rape," she declared, "we permit its existence." A contributor to Kirkus Reviews praised Francisco's "enviable feel for language," concluding "Francisco is not afraid to tell. We all must be brave enough to listen." The book won the Minnesota Book Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction.

Achievements

• Francisco is best known as a writer. Her works, though varied in scope and style, primarily address fundamental social issues such as discrimination and sexual violence.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Cold Feet

    (Returning from a six-year Canadian exile, a Vietnam draft...)

    1988
  • Telling: A Memoir of Rape and Recovery

    (She invites the reader into her life and into the questio...)

    2000

Connections

Patricia was married to Timothy Francisco, a freelance photographer. The couple divorced c. 1994, and had one son.

ex-spouse:

Timothy Francisco

References

• Contemporary Authors Volume 221
  2004