Rosellen Brown

Nationality: American. Born: 1939.

Career: Instructor in American and English literature, Tougaloo College, Mississippi, 1965-67; instructor in creative writing, Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont, 1976, and University of Houston, Texas, 1982-85. Since 1989 instructor in creative writing, University of Houston. Visiting professor of creative writing, Boston University, 1977-78. School of the Art Institute.

Awards: National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, 1973, 1982; Guggenheim fellowship, 1976; Great Lake College Association best first novel award, 1976, for The Autobiography of My Mother; Janet Kafka best novel award, 1984, for Civil Wars; Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year, 1984; American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters award, 1987, for literature; Ingram-Merrill grant, 1989-90.

"Rosellen Brown can do anything with language... She can engender and render five emotions simultaneously, and throw over a whole novel a skein of sureness and sympathy." Cynthia Ozick.