UI English Professor, Longtime Poet Joy Passanante Publishes First Novel
Monday, March 11 2002
March 11, 2002^MOSCOW – University of Idaho English professor and longtime poet Joy Passanante has written her first novel, “My Mother’s Lovers,” which is now available on bookstore shelves around the region.^ The novel, published by the University of Nevada Press, chronicles the life of Lake Rose Davis, the daughter of an eccentric bookstore owner and free-spirited artist. From the peace sign decorating the family’s Volkswagen van, to her mother’s paintings of female nudes, the Davis family stands apart from everyone in the small Idaho mill town where they reside.^ “I trekked around northern Idaho trying to find the perfect town. In a way, this process connected me more to Idaho than I felt before,” says Passanante, who is originally from St. Louis, Mo. For the novel’s setting, “I ended up combining Sandpoint and Riggins, with a tad of McCall.”^ In the novel, Rose explores her own sexuality and reenacts in her own life what she believes are her mother’s extramarital liaisons.^ “Scenes of painful betrayal and languid seduction … form a story that vividly details the ways in which passion can both wound and restore,” says Kim Barnes, UI creative writing professor.^ Passanante writes: "The day I disappeared with my mother I discovered the first fragile layer of all the secrets that would be revealed to me. And even before I began to peel back more and more toward the core, and feel helpless against its gravity, I knew they had already changed my life forever."^ Passanante has published essays, stories and poems in numerous literary magazines including Short Story, Portland Review Literary Journal, Alaska Quarterly Review and Xavier Review. She studied writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Washington University in St. Louis, and Cornell University.^ During her writing career, she has received two fellowships from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and three Pushcart Prize nominations.^ She will present her latest novel, “My Mother’s Lovers,” at a reading on Wednesday, April 3, at 7:30 p.m., in the UI College of Law Courtroom.^ Her other readings include:^BOISE Thursday, April 11, 7:30 p.m., Log Cabin Literary Center^COUNCIL Wednesday, April 10, 7 p.m., Events Center^LEWISTON Saturday, April 6, 7:30 p.m., Lewis-Clark Center for Arts and History, Lewis-Clark State College^MOSCOW Tuesday, April 16, 7 p.m., Bookpeople^ Wednesday, May 1, 12:30 p.m., UI Women’s Center^SPOKANE Wednesday, April 24, 7:30 p.m., Auntie’s Bookstore^Contact: Joy Passanante, English Department, (208) 885-6156, joy@uidaho.edu or Leslie Einhaus, University Communications, (208) 885-6489, lesliee@uidaho.edu^Note to editors/writers: A photo of Passanante can be downloaded at: http://www.its.uidaho.edu/today/photo_list.asp-30-^LE-3/11/02-L&S^
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