Angela pneuman biography married

I was probably expected to marry a minister, like every other woman in my family for generations.
A collection of wisdom from 20th Century writers about anything and everything literary, from first efforts to children's books, from sex to writers' colonies.
Angela Pneuman's debut novel, Lay it on my Heart, is heavy.

•

Bookish

Monthly and annual subscriptions are 25% off this month. A preview of July’s agent list can be accessed here.

Many years ago, when the U.S. president from Arkansas was still in his first term, I met today’s interviewee, Angela Pneuman. We were graduate creative writing students in Bloomington, Indiana, and the first time I heard her read from one of her stories, it was obvious that she had a tremendous amount of talent.

I remember one afternoon in Ballantine Hall on Indiana’s storied campus—among other notable facts, Breaking Awayis set there and was written by IU alumnus and Academy Award winner Steve Tesich—when I nosily asked her how many stories she’d published. I thought she deserved to publish everything she’d written.

At that point, it was three stories—a considerable number for any MFA student. In this pre-Submittable era, every submission was photocopied and sent laboriously through the USPS (and in the 1990s, there were many fewer literary journals than today).

It didn’t surprise me that a year or so after graduating from IU, her work was selected fo

•

Untitled

Angela Pneuman's debut story collection, Home Remedies, was released in January 2007. She is a former Stanford University Wallace Stegner Fellow.

His shtick is ideas, product plans, and at a bar in Bolina's, second date, you're pushing your margarita back and forth on the worn, slippery wood while he gives you Napkins. For every state, he says, like the quarters! In all the restaurants, all the bars. Who doesn't like to look at a map? Take California. He moves his hands over the bar like he's articulating the belly curve of the west coast, with a little finger wiggle to scoop out San Francisco Bay. The idea lights up his face and there's the boy he used to be, probably, and the fact that you can see it means you probably like him too much already. Born innocent, boys are, and their mothers keep them that way, trailing clouds of glory. Mother's have different ideas for girls, private inoculations from the breast.

This guy's got his pen out, now, sketching California on the cocktail napkin. They've been playing the Eagles, like they do in every beach bar out h

•

In contemporary Georgia, Calvin works as a sewage treatment plant inspector. While inspecting a plant with a history of noncompliance, Calvin slips off a wet catwalk and submerges his leg in sewage. He returns to the office, where his co-worker, Dave Lott, jokes about Calvin's unpleasant odor. Dave asks Calvin to go out for a beer after work, but Calvin declines and returns home to his wife Jill. Jill's desire for another baby causes tension in the household, as Calvin does not want another child. Jill also dislikes Dave, as his first wife, Pat, was Jill's friend. Dave had left Pat for another woman. A couple of days later, Dave dies of a bacterial disease. Pat, who lives three hours away, comes to town for the funeral with her and Dave's 15-year-old daughter, Jennifer. At the funeral, Pat and Dave's second wife get into an argument, so Jill tells Calvin to take Jennifer away while the adults talk. Jennifer tells Calvin that she hates her mom. Calvin shares that when he was her age, he felt the same, and he sometimes distracted himself by imagining what it would be like if his par