Davis, Claire 1949–

PERSONAL: Born 1949, in Milwaukee, WI; children: Brian. Education: University of Montana, M.F.A., 1993.

ADDRESSES: Home—ID. Office—English Department, Lewis-Clark State College, 500 8th Ave., Lewiston, ID 83501. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, ID, assistant professor of English, 1994–; has also worked as a farmer and bookseller.

AWARDS, HONORS: Associated Writing Program Award for poetry; "Balance" named to Best American Short Stories List of 100, 1994; Pushcart Prize, 1997, for short story "Grounded"; Foundation Award, Lewis-Clark State College, 2000, for teaching; Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award, 2001, for Winter Range.

WRITINGS:

Winter Range (novel), Picador USA (New York, NY), 2000.

Season of the Snake (novel), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Labors of the Heart: Stories, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

(Editor, with Kim Barnes) Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-five Women over Forty, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of stories and poems to journals, including Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, and Southern Review.

ADAPTATIONS: Season of the Snake was adapted for audio cassette, Blackstone Audio, 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, short story writer and novelist Claire Davis, like many women busy with their daily lives, postponed her writing dreams until she was in her mid-thirties. In 2000 she made a strong debut on the literary scene with the novel Winter Range, which won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award the following year.

While earning her master's degree in fine arts at the University of Montana, Davis worked at an independent bookstore in Missoula, an experience she later realized was important to her career as a writer. "It occurs to me only years later," she wrote in "The Work Ahead," her 2001 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award acceptance speech, "how integral that entire experience was to my writing career…. I have read more work, become more aware of what the world of books encompasses in the small upper loft of that bookstore than I ever learned in a classroom." While a student, Davis had been writing poetry and short stories, one of which, "Grounded," won a Pushcart Prize in 1997. "I'd been writing short stories up to this point—learning the art of compression, control, learning to recognize the elegant possibilities of the sentence," Davis recalled in her speech.

Davis discussed the inspiration for Winter Range in an interview with Cindy Heidemann for the Pacific National Booksellers Association Web site. "I was in graduate school in Montana when a particularly ugly case of abuse was prosecuted in the eastern part of the state. It was a couple who, it turned out, had a history of starving their horse herds. It started me thinking about who would do such a thing, and what the reaction would be in a community so invested in the idea of independence and personal property. And what if someone 'outside' of that community was faced with the dilemma." Drawing on her experience as a transplanted Midwesterner as well, Davis first put all of these "what ifs" together into a not-so-short story which begged to become a novel. It eventually became Winter Range, which recounts the tale of Chas Stubblefield, a rancher who is too proud to ask for help when he faces bankruptcy and the starvation of his cattle and horses. Ike Parson, the sheriff and a newcomer to Montana, having married local woman Pattiann, tries to deal with the situation and faces new challenges within the community.

Reviewers found much to like in Winter Range, particularly Davis's portrayal of the Montana landscape. Karen Anderson, writing in Library Journal, described Davis's integration of quotidian details of ranching and small-town life as "brilliant" and her descriptions of place as "breathtaking." Likening her prose to crystalline, clean snow, a Publishers Weekly reviewer added: "Crisp details establish place and characters with authoritative clarity." In Booklist, Bill Ott noted that Winter Range contains "stylistic and thematic connections to both [Larry] Watson and [Ivan] Doig but is in no way derivative of either" and that Davis ensures that her lyrical prose serves the story. In the Denver Post, Ron Franscell also compared Davis's work favorably with that of her western contemporaries: "Davis' literary ethos rivals Larry Watson, Kent Haruf and Ivan Doig. And Winter Range might be an even more poetic example of the new Western literature, in which landscape, climate and the earth make an indelible mark upon the human character. Its vivid details … prove Davis is a writer who both embraces and transcends the boundaries of Western regional literature."

Several reviewers voiced opinions about Davis's characterizations. In the Boulder News, Clay Evans remarked that "the characters in Winter Range remain mostly at arm's length, and their decision-making is so misguided that readers may wish they could shake the players by the scruff of the neck." Conversely, Ron Charles, writing in the Christian Science Monitor, claimed that the relationship between Ike and Pattiann is "drawn perfectly," that "Davis captures the complexity of this tragedy in all its personal and social dimensions," and that she "brands these characters with rich psychological clarity." Calling Winter Range "brilliant, and beautifully written," a Kirkus Reviews critic concluded, "Davis's skill brings wintery Montana alive—predictably bleak, unexpectedly vibrant."

In her second novel, Season of the Snake, Davis once again paints landscape, this time along the Snake River in Washington and Idaho. However, the author moves into new ground with a work that blends psychological thriller with a relationship novel. Her protagonist, Nance, is a herpetologist studying the migration of rattlesnakes. She is married to Ned, who, as the novel progresses, proves himself increasingly unstable and abusive, a situation that is exacerbated by the arrival of Nance's sister, Meredith, who has a history of being involved in abusive situations and whom Nance blames for the death of her first husband. Reviewing the work in Kliatt, Francine Levitov wrote, "This novel about a snake scientist gets its fangs into you from the beginning and grips hard." Similarly, Library Journal contributor Christine Perkins felt the "vivid scenery and a tangible impression of ominous menace will appeal to fans of literary psychological suspense." Further praise came from a Kirkus Reviews critic who called Season of the Snake "another powerful and suspenseful tale that taps the violent side of masculine nature." Booklist contributor Whitney Scott also admired this novel, concluding: "Compelling writing on the powerful bonds that constitute family."

Davis, working with Kim Barnes, served as editor for the 2006 work, Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty. The collected essays have as their express purpose the debunking of the myth that a woman's life is over after her 30s. The contributors include well-known writers, such as Julia Glass and Pam Huston, as well as lesser-known authors. Though finding the editors' introduction "creepily smug," a critic for Kirkus Reviews concluded that reading the collection was "like a visit with very honest, very smart friends." Donna L. Davey, writing in Library Journal, also had praise for Kiss Tomorrow Hello, calling it a "satisfying volume," while a Publishers Weekly contributor concluded, "No doubt other boomer women will find much to identify with." Davis also published a volume of short stories in 2006, Labors of the Heart: Stories.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 2000, Bill Ott, review of Winter Range, p. 2007; February 1, 2001, Bill Ott, "Baby, It's Cold Outside," p. 1080; February 15, 2005, Whitney Scott, review of Season of the Snake, p. 1058.

Boulder News (Boulder, CO), September 24, 2000, Clay Evans, "A Novel as Grim, Brutal, and Cold as Montana Winter."

Capital Times, September 15, 2000, Heather Lee Schroeder, "Similar Books? Look between the Covers."

Christian Science Monitor, September 7, 2000, Ron Charles, "Winter Is No Paradise on the Montana Range."

Denver Post, September 10, 2000, Ron Franscell, "Paradise Frozen."

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2000, review of Winter Range, p. 903; December 15, 2005, review of Season of the Snake, p. 1155; January 1, 2006, review of Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty, p. 23.

Kliatt, July, 2005, Francine Levitov, review of Season of the Snake, p. 56.

Library Journal, September 15, 2000, Karen Anderson, review of Winter Range, p. 111; February 1, 2005, Christine Perkins, review of Season of the Snake, p. 67; April 1, 2006, Donna L. Davey, review of Kiss Tomorrow Hello, p. 113.

Ploughshares, winter, 2000, Fred Leebron, review of Winter Range, p. 207.

Publishers Weekly, July 10, 2000, review of Winter Range, p. 42; December 19, 2005, Kiss Tomorrow Hello, p. 51.

Washington Post Book World, September 8, 2000, Carolyn See, "Welcome to Montana, Where Paranoia Runs Deep," p. C2.

ONLINE

Lewis-Clark State College Web site, http://www.lcsc.edu/ (October 16, 2006), "Claire Davis."

Pacific National Booksellers Association Web site, http://www.pnba.org/ (October 16, 2006), Claire Davis, "The Work Ahead," and Cindy Heidemann, "Author Interview."

Picador Web site, http://www.picadorusa.com/ (October 16, 2006), "Claire Davis, in Her Own Words."