Lucia Berlin

Lucia Berlin (1936-2004)) was a major American short story writer of the late 20th Century. She was born on November 12, 1936) and died on her 68th birthday in 2004.

Overview

Berlin began publishing relatively late in life, under the encouragement and sometimes tutelage of poet Ed Dorn. Her first small collection, "Angels Laundromat" was published in 1981, but her published stories were written as early as 1960. Several of her stories appeared in magazines such as The Atlantic and Saul Bellow’s little magazine The Noble Savage.

Berlin published six collections of short stories, but most of her work can be found in three later volumes from Black Sparrow Books: "Homesick: New and Selected Stories" (1990), "So Long: Stories 1987-92" (1993) and "Where I Live Now: Stories 1993-98" (1999).

Berlin was never a bestseller, but was widely influential within the literary community. She aspired to Chekhov's objectivity and refusal to judge. She has also been widely compared to Raymond Carver and Richard Yates. One of her most memorable achievements was the stunning one-page story "My Jockey," which captured a world, a moment and a panoramic movement in five quick paragraphs. It won the Jack London Short Prize for 1985. Berlin also won an American Book Award in 1991 for "Homesick", and was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. [http://tomraworth.com/lrocky.html]

Early Life and Adulthood

Berlin was born in Juneau, Alaska and spent her childhood on the move, following her father's career as a mining engineer. The family lived in mining camps in Idaho, Montana and Arizona, and Chile, where Lucia spent most of her youth.

She continued wandering as an adult, living in New Mexico, Mexico, north and south California and Colorado.

She was married three times and had four sons: Danny, Benjamin, Jeffrey and David.

Work Influences and Teaching

Throughout her life, Berlin earned a living through a series of working class jobs, reflected in story titles like "Manual for Cleaning Women," "Emergency Room Notebook, 1977," and "Private Branch Exchange" (an old term for switchboard operators).

Up through the early 1990s, Berlin taught creative writing in a number of venues, including the San Francisco County Jail and The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. She also took oral histories from elderly patients at Mt. Zion Hospital.

In the fall of 1994, Berlin began a two-year teaching position as Visiting Writing at University of Colorado, Boulder. Near the end of her term, she was one of four campus faculty awarded the Student Organization for Alumni Relations Award for Teaching Excellence. [http://tomraworth.com/lcamera.html] "To win a teaching award after two years is unheard of," the English Chair Katherine Eggert said later in an obituary. [http://tomraworth.com/lcamera.html] Berlin was asked to stay on at the end of her two-year term. She was named associate professor, and continued teaching there until 2000.

Berlin was plagued by health problems, including double scoliosis. Her crooked spine punctured one of her lungs, and she was never seen without an oxygen tank beside her from 1994 until the end. [http://tomraworth.com/lcamera.html] She retired when her condition grew too severe, and later developed lung cancer. She moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her family, and to assist her breathing. (Boulder's elevation over 5,000 feet complicated her lung condition.) Lucia died in her bed in Marina del Rey, on her birthday, with one of her favorite books in her hands.

Literary works

* "Angels Laundromat" (1981)
* "Phantom Pain" (1984)
* "Safe and Sound" (1988)
* "Homesick: New and Selected Stories" (1990)
* "So Long: Stories 1987-92" (1993)
* "Where I Live Now: Stories 1993-98"

Critical Praise

" [The stories] are told in a conversational voice and they move with a swift and often lyrical economy. They capture and communicate moments of grace and cast a lovely, lazy light that lasts. Berlin is one of our finest writers and here she is at the height of her powers."—Molly Giles, San Francisco Chronicle, on "So Long"

"Berlin's literary model is Chekhov, but there are extra-literary models too, including the extended jazz solo, with its surges, convolutions, and asides. This is writing of a very high order."—August Kleinzahler, London Review of Books, on "Where I Live Now"

"This remarkable collection occasionally put me in mind of Annie Proulx's Accordion Crimes, with its sweep of American origins and places. Berlin is our Scheherazade, continually surprising her readers with a startling variety of voices, vividly drawn characters, and settings alive with sight and sound."—Barbara Barnard, American Book Review, on on "Where I Live Now"

External links

* [http://www.blacksparrowbooks.com/titles/berlin.htm Major collections, with reviews]
* [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n15/berl01_.html London Review of Books special "Love, Lucia"]
* [http://www.blacksparrowbooks.com/author.asp?last=Berlin&first=Lucia collections]
* [http://www.poltroonpress.com/berlin.html first-person bio by friend and publisher Alastair Johnston]
* [http://tomraworth.com/luciaberlin.html Memorial site]
* [http://tomraworth.com/lrocky.html text of Rocky Mountain News obituary]
* [http://tomraworth.com/lcamera.html text of Boulder Daily Camera obituary]