susan neville
Selected WorksMagazine article
Mystic vs. Maniac
The mystic vs. the maniac: every day atrocities are committed in the name of faith. But as Susan Neville reminds us, it's possible to distinguish between the fires of fanaticism and the abiding glow of our better angels. Oprah Magazine: May 2007 Sailing the Inland Sea: On Writing, Literature, and Land
Calling on the image of the Midwest's vanished inland sea, this collection of essays ponders the writing process and the "landlocked imagination." Creative nonfiction
Iconography: A Writer's Meditation
Memoir and meditation on writing Indiana Winter
"Susan Neville is defining the emerging genre of the new nonfiction. The stories she has to tell in Indiana Winter are tales of great emotion and stunning insight."--Michael Martone FABRICATION: ESSAYS ON MAKING THINGS AND MAKING MEANING
We are a nation of consumers. In this meditation of manufacture, Susan Neville journeys to factories in the heart of the midwest, looking for the sources of things. Short Fiction
Invention of Flight
Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction IN THE HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHTS
"Susan Neville's language shimmers like light coming through colored glass, and her subtle words uncovered the inarticulate longings that burn the hearts of the most ordinary citizens. Susan Neville is one of the finest short story writers in the country." Maura Stanton |
FABRICATION: ESSAYS ON MAKING THINGS AND MAKING MEANINGWe are a nation of consumers. But where does what we buy come from? And how are these things made? And what do they mean? In the meditation on manufacturing, Susan Neville journeys to factories and plants, looking for the sources of things. And on these journeys, Neville visits casket makers, wood carvers, glass poppers, and cartographers. The spinning lathes and screaming saws of industry. Learns how, and by whom, and why things are made, whether they be dolls or insulin, gyroscopes or glass. And by focusing on process and production--and on language itself--Nevill gives us new, uncommon perspectives from which to view how we live and how changing economies change whole worlds.
An Utne Reader selection and a finalist for the Great Lakes Booksellers Midwest book of the year. 
Factories featured include: The Hummer Factory, Kokomo Opalescent Glass, Cummins Engines, Eli Lilly, Turner Dolls,Batesville Casket Co., Perfect Circle,Cram Globes and others. |
