Dunn, Samantha 1966(?)-

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DUNN, Samantha 1966(?)-

PERSONAL: Born c. 1966. Education: New Mexico State University, B.A., 1988.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author's Mail, Henry Holt and Company, 115 West 18th St., New York, NY 10011.

CAREER: Journalist and novelist.

WRITINGS:

Failing Paris, Toby Press (New Milford, CT), 2000.

Not by Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life, Henry Holt and Company (New York), 2002.

Contributor to periodicals, including In Style, Los Angeles Times, and Yoga Journal.

SIDELIGHTS: Journalist and novelist Samantha Dunn grew up in northern New Mexico. She attended New Mexico State University, earning a B.A. in journalism in 1988. Dunn has traveled widely, living for several years in Australia and for an extended period in France. She has published articles in numerous American publications, including In Style, Yoga Journal, and the Los Angeles Times.

An L.A.-based workshop in fiction writing inspired Dunn to pen her first novel. In the class, several people were trying to describe Paris without having seen it—their details just didn't feel authentic to her. Soon after the course ended, Dunn put down on paper her own Parisian perceptions, her own real recollections, and built a story around them.

Failing Paris follows characters through its French-city namesake and also tours Dunn's native New Mexico. It tells the story of American student-in-Paris Sabine Wilcox, a young woman with a troubled and difficult past and a lot to learn about herself. Over the course of the novel Sabine experiences dissatisfying relationships with several men, seeks out an abortion, and finally makes a deep bond with a man named Abe. In turn, she comes to better understand her emerging adult self. Toby Press, an internet company, published the novel in 2000, and the book was a finalist for the PEN West Fiction Prize.

Reviewing Failing Paris for the Times Literary Supplement, Thea Klapwald noted, "The prose is precise, captivating, and the obvious reason for the book's nomination for the PEN/West award. This is no airy tale. . . . It is a painful story, honestly told, of dreams never realized."

In 1997, Dunn, then thirty-two and an avid equestrian, suffered a terrible riding injury and almost lost her leg. Doctors did not expect Dunn to keep her leg and immediately tried to prepare her for the idea of a prosthetic replacement. Months down the line, the author embraced yoga and, by her estimation, managed to heal and rehabilitate through spiritual concentration as well as top-quality western medicine. She surprised doctors by saving her leg, which although too weak to run on became strong enough for dancing.

Published in 2002, Not by Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life is a memoir describing Dunn's life-altering accident and the surrounding events. Writing about the book for Library Journal, Lucille M. Boone observed, "As she convalesces, she candidly reviews her life and reflects on what it means to be accident-prone. Is this calamity—not the first, but the most serious—just a coincidence, or does it indicate something deeper that needs to be examined?"

Reviewing the memoir for People Weekly, Melissa Stanton suggested, "While Dunn's clear prose and lively recall of her calamities make for an effortless read, her story grows tiresome with ponderous self-psychoanalysis and airy praise for the power of yoga." A reviewer for Booklist decided, "Despite her memoir's painful subject matter, Dunn never loses her delightful sense of humor as she fearlessly probes the inner workings of her mind."

Dunn, in an article for Yoga Journal, described the moments directly following the accident: "I don't know how long I lay there before I screamed for help. Time had no measure. I remember thinking about a conversation with a friend; it was like a home movie playing in my head. I was lamenting a string of bad luck that had come my way; she wasn't sympathetic. 'God touches us with a feather to get our attention,' she said to me. 'Then if we don't listen, he starts throwing bricks.'"

Dunn lives in Southern California, where she works as a freelance journalist and rides horses five days a week.