KINGSTON, R.I., Feb. 1, 2018\u2014Two things to know about the writer Theo Greenblatt:<\/p>\n
First, she\u2019s a woman. An editor flubbed up her gender once, identifying her as a man in a short bio. (She forgave him.)<\/p>\n
Second, she is persistent. Her short story, \u201cSolitaire,\u201d was rejected 22 times before winning first place recently in a short story contest in \u201cThe London Magazine,\u201d so prestigious it\u2019s known as \u201cThe New Yorker\u201d of England.<\/p>\n
The prize\u2014$700 and publication in the magazine\u2014will be bestowed at a celebration in the House of Commons in mid-March. The 58-year-old 2010 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate will be there, accompanied by her daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already booked flights,\u201d says Greenblatt. \u201cIt\u2019s a big deal and, really, a shocker.\u201d<\/p>\n
But not a surprise to Greenblatt\u2019s mentor and 溏心vlog免费B站 professor, Mary Cappello, who says Greenblatt is a rising star in the literary world and has \u201csteadily, determinedly and doggedly stayed the course\u201d to see her work published in highly-respected journals such as \u201cThe Harvard Review\u201d and \u201cPembroke Magazine.\u201d Greenblatt\u2019s memoir, which she wrote for her 溏心vlog免费B站 dissertation, has yet to find a home, but Cappello is confident this \u201cgrand slam\u201d award will bring attention to her work and \u201copen that next door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenblatt\u2019s journey to writing was anything but predictable.<\/p>\n
Raised in Cambridge, Mass.<\/strong>, she graduated from high school early and completed an associate\u2019s degree in merchandising, then spent several years as a pink-haired punk rocker, hanging out in seedy nightclubs and writing for \u201cSubway News,\u201d an independent arts publication started by a friend.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really have a lot of confidence in my writing,\u201d she says. \u201cI thought that great writers were born not made, so why bother trying?\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, weary of the music scene, Greenblatt headed to Israel to work on a kibbutz. She ended up staying four years after marrying an Israeli man and starting a family. In 1987, they moved to Newport<\/strong> so Greenblatt could work at her parents\u2019 Bowen\u2019s Wharf shop, Irish Imports, Ltd.<\/p>\n The marriage didn\u2019t work out, and Greenblatt soon found herself raising three kids, then ages 2, 5 and 7, as a single mother. Intent on starting a new career, she enrolled at Roger Williams University to study English literature. Homework and books dominated family life.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d be sitting on a park bench reading \u2018The Odyssey\u2019 while my kids played,\u201d she says. \u201cOur house back then was a place of study. We\u2019d all do our homework together.\u201d<\/p>\n Her writing was mostly scholarly. It wasn\u2019t until she enrolled at 溏心vlog免费B站 for her master\u2019s degree that her talent for fiction writing emerged. A creative writing class with the late 溏心vlog免费B站 professor Daniel Pearlman gave her the confidence to tap her talent.<\/p>\n \u201cI realized I could write fiction,\u201d she says, \u201cthat it was more about craft than genius, and that I had that in me.\u201d<\/p>\n She got a job as an English instructor at the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport\u2014a position she still holds today\u2014while pursuing her doctorate in English and creative nonfiction, also at 溏心vlog免费B站. Her first publication, in 2011, was a short story about a young man reflecting on the son he\u2019s never met. She\u2019s had upwards of 20 stories and short memoirs published since then.<\/p>\n But those successes did not come without rejection.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, a piece gets accepted right away,\u201d she says. \u201cBut more often, the rejections come fast and furious with no positive feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n The prize from \u201cThe London Magazine\u201d\u2014England\u2019s oldest literary periodical and publisher of some of the best writing in the country\u2014was unexpected. \u201cI was just stunned,\u201d says Greenblatt. \u201cI stared at the email for a few minutes wondering, \u2018Is this real?\u2019 Then I ran to my colleague\u2019s office next door and jumped up and down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSolitaire\u201d is about the unexpected connection between two vulnerable people\u2014an eccentric woman who plays Solitaire on her front porch and a 13-year girl who runs off with an older man she meets on the internet and returns to her neighborhood lonely and excluded. A blind cat brings them together.<\/p>\n “The girl is in need of quiet presence, which is the one thing the narrator is able to furnish,\u201d says Greenblatt. \u201cThe structure of the card game, the reliability of it, and that vague chance for winning, are all metaphorically significant. For me, most short stories will have hints and elements from my own life. For \u2018Solitaire,\u2019 the solitary game is a practice I was attached to at one point in my life, and I had a beloved blind cat whose charm I borrowed from. The initial inspiration for the story, though, came from a local news report about a young girl who was abducted in similar fashion. I thought a lot about what a girl that age is needy for, that leads her down such a path.\u201d<\/p>\n In all her work, Greenblatt says she tends to explore vulnerability and the abuse of power, developing characters who have both likable and unlikable qualities.<\/p>\n \u201cI leave room for readers to find a character slightly creepy or funny when they didn’t expect them to be,\u201d she says. \u201cBut above all, readers should find something to identify with, and maybe that something will surprise them when they realize it. Maybe it will make them a little uncomfortable, but it will keep them reading.\u201d<\/p>\n When she picks up her award next month she plans to visit with her pen pal from Wales, with whom she\u2019s been corresponding for 50 years. \u201cI\u2019m so thrilled for you, but not surprised,\u201d the friend wrote when Greenblatt told her about the prize. \u201cEven at 8, you were far more eloquent than me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I., Feb. 1, 2018\u2014Two things to know about the writer Theo Greenblatt: First, she\u2019s a woman. An editor flubbed up her gender once, identifying her as a man in a short bio. (She forgave him.) Second, she is persistent. Her short story, \u201cSolitaire,\u201d was rejected 22 times before winning first place recently in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}