Julie Schumacher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Julie Schumacher | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Occupations | Novelist, essayist, short story writer and academic |
| Spouse | Lawrence R. Jacobs |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Thurber Prize for American Humor, Dear Committee Members Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship Loft-McKnight Award in Creative Prose, The Loft Literary Center |
| Academic background | |
| Education | B.A., Spanish and Creative Writing M.F.A., English/Fiction |
| Alma mater | Oberlin College Cornell University |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Minnesota |
| Website | https://julieschumacher.com/ |
Julie Schumacher is an American novelist, essayist, short story writer and academic. She is a Regents Professor of Creative Writing and English at the University of Minnesota.[1] Schumacher specializes in creative writing, contemporary fiction, and children's literature.
Schumacher received her bachelor's degree in Spanish and Creative Writing from Oberlin College in 1981. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiction from Cornell University in 1986.[2]
Career
Following her MFA, Schumacher held brief appointments as an instructor at Saint Olaf College and other academic institutions before joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota as an associate professor in 1996. She was promoted to Professor in 2008, and became Regents Professor in 2021. She has won multiple teaching awards and served as Director of the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Minnesota for twelve years.[1]
Schumacher is married to Lawrence R. Jacobs, the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and the Director of the Center for the Study of Politics at the University of Minnesota.[3]
Works
Schumacher has authored multiple novels, stories, and essays. Her first novel, The Body Is Water, was an ALA Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her other books include An Explanation for Chaos and five books for young readers: The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls,[4] The Chain Letter, Black Box,[5] The Book of One Hundred Truths, and Grass Angel. Schumacher is also the author of the national best-seller, Dear Committee Members, for which she was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor. She was the first woman to win the Thurber Prize.
In 2014, Kirkus Reviews called Dear Committee Members a “funny epistolary novel composed of recommendation letters written by a caustic, frustrated and cautiously hopeful English professor named Jason Fitger."[6] An NPR review noted that the novel "deftly mixes comedy with social criticism and righteous outrage. By the end, you may well find yourself laughing so hard it hurts."[7]
In 2018, Schumacher published The Shakespeare Requirement, a literary "satire that oscillates between genuine compassion and scathing mockery with admirable dexterity" (Kirkus).[8] The New Yorker described the novel as a "sad-professor satire that burns with moral anger."[9]
Awards and honors
- 1995 - PEN/Hemingway finalist and ALA Notable book of the Year, The Body Is Water
- 2000 - Loft Award in Creative Prose, The Loft Literary Center
- 2007 - Minnesota Book Award
- 2008 - Distinguished Educator Award, The College of Continuing Education
- 2010 - Horace T. Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education
- 2011 – Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship
- 2015 - Winner, Thurber Prize for American Humor[10]
- 2016 - 2019 - Scholar of the College, University of Minnesota
- 2019 - Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate and Professional Education, University of Minnesota[11]
- 2021 - Regents Professorship, University of Minnesota[12]
