1. English 336: Contemporary British &
Claudia Emerson Toni Morrison’s A Mercy Cormac McCarthy’s The Road Jim Crace’s The Pesthouse

2. Claudia Emerson Born in 1957. BA—English from U of Virginia in 1979.
Came home, married, and managed a used bookstore.
Began to write constantly during work.
MA—Poetry from UNC at Greensboro in 1991.

3. Career Has written three books of poetry.
Professor of poetry at University of Mary Washington.
Pinion, An Elgy nominated for Pulitzer.
19 year-old marriage failed after coming to UMA.

4. Pulitzer Prize Winner
Won Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2006 for Late Wife.
Dual focus between divorce and healing with previous husband and current husband.
Late Wife has three parts:
“Divorce Epistles”—chronicles dissolution of first marriage.
“Breaking Up the House”—explores solitude and healing.
“Late Wife: Letters to Kent”—Sonnets written to husband Kent, whose first wife died of cancer.
Emerson with new husband, Kent Ippolito, on whom many of her poems from Late Wife are based.

5. Claudia Emerson
Claudia Emerson PBS Interview

6. Toni Morrison

7. Toni Morrison Born Chloe Anthony Wofford February 18, 1931
Lorain, Ohio
B.A. English, Howard University, 1949
M.A. English, Cornell University, 1955

8. Toni Morrison
Taught English at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas
Taught English at Howard University
Editor for Random House

9. Toni Morrison

10. Toni Morrison

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13. Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

14. Cormac McCarthy

15. Biography Born in Rhode Island in 1933.
Originally named Charles; changed name to “Cormac” after an Irish king.
Attended the University of Tennessee in Liberal Arts in spurts but never graduated.
Worked in Chicago as an auto mechanic while writing first novel.
Wrote several novels—The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark, and Child of God—and received several fellowships during early career.
After living in several places and two divorces, he moved to El Paso, Texas.

16. Received MacArthur Fellowship and used the money to live while writing.
Published Blood Meridian in 1985—turning point in his work.
Blood Meridian is based on actual events; McCarthy learned Spanish in order to research and write more effectively.
Border Trilogy began with All the Pretty Horses in Continued with The Crossing and Cities of the Plain.

17. Married wife Jennifer around 1998; they live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Published No Country for Old Men The film won four Academy Awards in 2007, including Best Picture.
The Road published in Won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2007.
Very private life. Only one interview to New York Time and first television interview was with Oprah on June 5, Oprah Interview
Endured outright poverty at times in his career.

18. Cormac McCarthy

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21. Cormac McCarthy
John Grady Cole
Texas and Mexico
1930s

22. Cormac McCarthy
Billy Parham
Texas and Mexico
1930s

23. Cormac McCarthy John Grady Cole Billy Parham New Mexico, Texas, Mexico
1952

25. Cormac McCarthy

29. Jim Crace Born 1946 London Booker Award, 1997 for Quarantine
National Book Award, 1999 for Being Dead

30. Jim Crace

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32. Jim Crace

33. Apocalyptic Literature
Fiction and Film

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41. Apocalyptic Films

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