Ellen Akins Explained

Ellen Akins is an American novelist from South Bend, Indiana.

Early life and education

After graduating from LaSalle Intermediate Academy in 1977, Akins earned a Bachelor of Arts in film production at the University of Southern California. As a young adult, Akins participated in Beyond Our Control, a youth-produced community television program.^[1]

Career

Akins worked with film producer Sydney Pollack before losing interest in the film business. Akins then earned a Master of Fine Arts in the creative writing program at Johns Hopkins University.^[2] In April 1993, she was awarded the Academy Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for her fiction writing;^[3] she has also been given grants by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ingram Merrill Foundation,^[4] and won the Whiting Award in 1989.^[5]

Akins is the author of five books; the novels Home Movie, published in 1988 by Simon & Schuster,^[6] Little Woman, published in 1990 by Harper & Row,^[7] Public Life, published in 1993 by HarperCollins, and Hometown Brew, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1998, and the short story collection "World Like a Knife", published in 1991 by Johns Hopkins University Press. Akins has also taught at Western Michigan University, Northland College, and Fairleigh Dickinson University.^[8]

Personal life

Akins lives in Cornucopia, Wisconsin.^[9]

Awards

• 1989 Whiting Award
• 1993 Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Works

Books

• Book: 1988 . Home Movie . registration . Simon & Schuster . 978-0-67166-135-9 .
• Book: 1990 . Little Woman . Harpercollins . 978-0-06016-362-4 .
• Book: 1991 . World Like a Knife . The Johns Hopkins University Press . 978-0-80184-288-7 .
• Book: 1993 . Public Life . Harpercollins . 978-0-06016-753-0 .
• Book: 1998 . Hometown Brew . Knopf . 978-0-67944-795-5 .

Stories

• 1985 . Something You Won't Understand . The Southern Review . Winter . LSU Press . ^[10]
• 1991 . Nobody's Baby . The Southern Review . Autumn . LSU Press . ^[11]
• Web site: A Modest Appetite . 2009 . Perigree: Publication for the Arts . https://web.archive.org/web/20121028083233/http://www.perigee-art.com/0709/index-3.php . 28 October 2012.
• Fall 2010 . Her Delivery . Serving House Journal . 2 .

External links

• Profile at The Whiting Foundation

Notes and References

1. Web site: Ellen Akins. IMDb. 2020-05-05.
2. Web site: Ellen Akins The Loft Literary Center. loft.org. 2020-05-05.
3. News: Intense, Urgent Novel Skewers Politics. Gillespie. Mary. 23 May 1993. Chicago Sun-Times.
4. News: Hughes. Andrew S.. August 27, 1998. Hometown Brewed: South Bend native and author Ellen Akins has built a critical reputation book by book. South Bend Tribune.
5. News: 10 Get Awards for Writers. McDowell. Edwin. 27 October 1989. The New York Times.
6. News: California Dreams and Obsessions. Prose. Francine. 20 November 1988. The Washington Post.
7. News: The San Diego Union-Tribune. Complicated characters mar 'Little Woman'. Winders. Glenda. July 22, 1990.
8. Web site: Ellen Akins . Cheqtel Communications . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090829232008/http://www.cheqnet.net/~emakins/EllenAkins.html . 2009-08-29 .
9. Web site: 2006-02-06 . Fiction Writer Ellen Akins to read for Writing Program Reading Series Feb. 16 . 2020-05-05 . . en-US.
10. Web site: The Southern Review : Issue: Winter 1985.
11. Web site: The Southern Review : Issue: Autumn 1991.