Doenges, Judy 1959–

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Doenges, Judy 1959–

PERSONAL:

Born, 1959, in Elmhurst, IL; daughter of G. William and Edia Doenges. Education: University of Wisconsin—Madison, B.A., 1981; University of Massachusetts at Amherst, M.F.A., 1987.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, 359 Eddy, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1773. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, began as assistant professor, became associate professor of English.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Bakeless Literary Publication Prize, 1998, Ferro-Grumly Award and citation for notable book of the year, New York Times Book Review, both 1999, all for What She Left Me; grants and fellowships from Ohio Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Artist Trust, Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.

WRITINGS:

What She Left Me (short stories and novella), University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 1999.

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (novel), University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Georgia Review, Green Mountains Review, Permafrost, Phoebe, and Nimrod.

SIDELIGHTS:

Judy Doenges is the author of What She Left Me, an award-winning collection of stories about various disaffected people, including homosexuals, children, and substance abusers. Among the tales in this collection are "Disaster," in which a young girl watches as her babysitter's party degenerates into chaos; "Occidental," wherein a drunken Vietnam veteran mourns his mother's death; and "God of Gods," in which a butcher struggles with his homosexuality. Other stories include "The Whole Number of Families," in which a lesbian sees that her homosexuality has contributed to her mother's aloofness, "MIB," wherein a woman fails to share the zestful exuberance of her lifelong friend, a gay fashion designer; and the title tale, in which a woman reflects on her late mother, an alcoholic. Booklist contributor Whitney Scott affirmed that the characters in What She Left Me "roil with inner turmoil," and noted that "their lives touch us deeply." Another reviewer, Katherine Dieckmann, wrote in the New York Times Book Review that What She Left Me constitutes "a superb debut," and she observed that Doenges "slaps fresh life into the weary [short story] form." Dieckmann accorded special praise to both "God of Gods," which she described as a "masterly piece," and "MIB," which she deemed "an amazingly complex teen into adulthood tale of cloaked emotion."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 1999, Whitney Scott, review of What She Left Me, p. 2002.

Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2000, "Up against the Rules."

New York Times Book Review, August 15, 1999, Katherine Dieckmann, "Out of the Closet, or Whatever," p. 6.

Women's Review of Books, January, 2000, Leslie Larson, "Dazed and Confused," pp. 15-16.

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Doenges, Judy 1959–