Join COCC Professor Stacey Donohue for a look inside the life of American author Kate Chopin at the Bend and Redmond Public Libraries. The presentations about Chopin are a part of the Know More Biography series being offered at Deschutes Public Libraries during the month of March. The presentations are free and open to the public.

 

Born in 1850, Chopin wrote two novels and about a hundred short stories in the 1890s. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana and most of her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. Her short stories were well received in her own time and were published by some of America's most important magazines, including Vogue, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Young People, Youth's Companion, and the Century. She was widely accepted as a writer of local color fiction, and was generally successful until the publication of her scandalous novel The Awakening, in 1899. The novel dealt with themes of female sexuality when the topic was taboo. She was highly criticized, and the book went mostly unread until it was republished to much acclaim in 1969.

 

After her death in 1904, Chopin's novels were mostly forgotten, but in the 1920s her short stories began to appear in anthologies, and slowly people rediscovered her work. By the 1960s, readers recognized the connections between women in the 1890s and women in the 1950s/60s. The Awakening became widely read for the first time. Today it is considered a classic of American literature, and her short stories are regularly anthologized.

 

Stacey Donohue holds a Ph.D. in English from The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. She earned the COCC Faculty Achievement Award in 2008 where she has been an instructor since 1995.

People with disabilities needing accommodations (alternative formats, seating or auxiliary aides) should contact Liz at 312-1032. For information about this or other library programs, please call 312-1032 or visit www.deschuteslibrary.org.

 

Deschutes Public Library Presents

Biography: Kate Chopin