Kass Fleisher
Kass Fleisher | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 21, 1959 Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. |
| Died | January 6, 2023 (aged 63) Normal, Illinois, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Genre | Fiction, creative nonfiction |
| Spouse |
Joe Amato
(m. 1995; div. 2013) |
| Website | |
| kassfleisher | |
Helen Kassia Fleisher (October 21, 1959 – January 6, 2023) was an American writer.
Biography
Fleisher was born on October 21, 1959, in Wilmington, Delaware.[1] She earned a BA in English from Dickinson College in 1981, a MA from the University of North Dakota in 1989, and a PhD from Binghamton University in 1993.[1] For a time, she taught English at Idaho State University.[2] In 2003, she began teaching creative writing at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois.[3] Fleisher was married to Joe Amato from 1995 until 2013. She died on January 6, 2023, at her home in Normal, Illinois.[1]
Writing
Fleisher authored five books of fiction and creative nonfiction, and coauthored screenplays with her writing partner Joe Amato.[4]
Fleisher's first book, The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History (2004), examines both the events and the cultural forgetting of the 1863 Bear River Massacre.[2] Fleisher became curious about the legacy of the massacre while living in Idaho in 1995.[2] At that time, the National Park Service was developing the Bear River Massacre Site historic memorial, and Fleisher was surprised how little awareness there was of "one of the worst acts of genocide in the history of the United States".[5] The book is organized in three parts. The first section is a synthesis of historical records about the event, titled "What (We Think) Happened". The longer second section, "The Making of History", follows Fleisher's eight-year research process as she interviews local historians, members of the Shoshone, and residents who oppose the memorial.[2] The final section, "Ten Digressions on What's Wrong", presents a postmodernist critique of history-making, intentionally rejecting narrative closure.[2]
List of books
- The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History (SUNY Press, 2004) ISBN 9780791460634[6]
- Accidental Species: A Reproduction (Chax Press, 2005)[7][8]
- The Adventurous (Factory School, 2006) ISBN 9781600010002
- Talking out of School: Memoir of an Educated Woman (Dalkey Archive Press, 2008) ISBN 9781564785176[9]
- Dead Woman Hollow (SUNY Press, 2012) ISBN 9781438442624[10]
- Editor, with Caitlin M. Alvarez. Litscapes: Collected US Writings 2015 (Steerage Press, 2015) ISBN 978-0983632689
References
- ^ a b c "Helen Kassia "Kass" Fleisher (obituary)". The Pantagraph. January 13, 2023. Retrieved August 28, 2024 – via Legacy.com.
- ^ a b c d e Woodworth-Ney, Laura (2008). "The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History (review)". The American Indian Quarterly. 32 (1): 113–115. ISSN 1534-1828.
- ^ "Kass Fleisher". Illinois Authors. Illinois Center for the Book. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
- ^ "Dr. Kass Fleisher (1959-2023) - News - Illinois State". July 25, 2023. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
- ^ Fleisher, Kass (February 1, 2004). The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History. State University of New York Press. pp. xi. ISBN 978-0-7914-8520-0.
- ^ Reviews of The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History:
- Pusateri, Chris (Winter 2004). "The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History". Rain Taxi. 9 (4). Retrieved September 25, 2024.
- Blaisdell, Bob; Elias, Amy J. (March–April 2005). "What is History? Two Views". American Book Review. 26 (3). Retrieved September 25, 2024.
- Barnes, John P. (Autumn 2005). "The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History". Western Historical Quarterly. 36 (3): 389–90. doi:10.2307/25443221. JSTOR 25443221. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
- Wright, Laura (October 2005). "The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History". Jacket (28). Retrieved September 25, 2024.
- Miller, Rod (2006). "The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History". Utah Historical Quarterly. 74 (2): 181–2. doi:10.2307/45063005. JSTOR 45063005. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
- Woodworth-Ney, Laura (2008). "The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History". The American Indian Quarterly. 32 (1): 113–15. doi:10.1353/aiq.2008.0010. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
- Karn, Alexander (Summer 2008). "The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History". Law and History Review. 26 (2): 455–56. doi:10.1017/S073824800000153X. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
- ^ Nugent, Lynne (2006). "Review | Recent Memoir: Butterscotch, Black Chairs, and Breeders". The Iowa Review. 36 (1): 180–187. doi:10.17077/0021-065X.6236. JSTOR 20152157.
- ^ Eckhard, Gerdes (2006). "Kass Fleisher. Accidental Species". The Review of Contemporary Fiction. 26 (2): 99+.
- ^ "Talking out of School | Kass Fleisher". www.krabarchive.com. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
- ^ Morrow, Patricia (2012). "Dead Woman Hollow". Foreword Reviews. Retrieved September 28, 2024.
Further reading
- Pierce, Michelle Naka (2007). "The Spaces Between: A Conversation with Kass Fleisher". Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy. 18 (1): 63–73. ISSN 1052-5017. JSTOR 10.5325/trajincschped.18.1.0063.
External links
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 1959 births
- 2022 deaths
- 21st-century American memoirists
- 21st-century American novelists
- Dickinson College alumni
- Illinois State University faculty
- American women novelists
- American women memoirists
- American women essayists
- 21st-century American women writers
- 21st-century American essayists
- Novelists from Illinois
- American women academics
- Writers from Wilmington, Delaware