FLEENOR, Juliann (Evans) 1942-

PERSONAL:

Born January 2, 1942, in Granite City, IL; daughter of Darwin Everas and Doris L. (Dudley) Evans; married David L. Fleenor (an accountant/software consultant), October 8, 1960; children: David L., Jr. Ethnicity: "White/American Indian." Education:

Memphis State University, B.A., 1971, M.A., 1973; University of Toledo, Ph.D., 1978. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Unitarian. Hobbies and other interests: Herb gardens, history of herbs.

ADDRESSES:

Home—20578 Primrose Ct., Palatine, IL 60010. Office—William Rainey Harper College, 12 West Algonquin Rd., Palatine, IL 60067. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Educator and author. Harper College, Palatine, IL, associate professor and president of faculty senate, 1992—. Illinois Community College Faculty Association, board member and curriculum chair, 1993—; Toledo United against Rape, co-founder; newspaper reporter and freelance magazine writer. Worked as a suicide and crisis intervention peer counselor.

MEMBER:

National Council of Teachers of English.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) The Female Gothic, Edens Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1983.

Contributor to anthologies, including New Black Mask, 1984, and The Longman Masters of Short Fiction, edited by Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn, Longman (New York, NY), 2001. Contributor of articles to magazines and newspapers.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Research on the life of Mary Todd Lincoln.

SIDELIGHTS:

Juliann Fleenor told CA: "My career has, as it has been in the past with other women, a pattern of beginnings and of endings, of starts, stops, and beginning again. I was motivated initially to become a writer because writing gave me the opportunity to discover myself and the world around me. When I was first in college, it was during the Vietnam War era, a period of great unrest, but also a period of great creativity. Yet I was not actually of that generation, having been born during World War II, and like others of the 1950s, being rather quiet but simmering underneath those girdles and white gloves. It is now disquieting to discover that my students, of course, do not have the memory of not only the '60s but the '70s and the '80s, and that some of them know nothing of the national turmoil we had during Watergate.

"Who influences my work? I read everything and am influenced by it all; but I particularly like the women writers living today—Alice Walker, Alice Munro, Amy Bloom, Joan Didion. The fiction I like is the fiction that speaks truth so clearly that it takes my breath away. I hate pretense.

"As for my writing process, I have several desks throughout the house and keep different projects on them, moving from desk to desk. I love quiet, although I find little right now. But I continue to struggle to find it, for it is in the silence that we hear our internal music.

"I must mention my enduring marriage to my husband. Without his presence, I am sure my life would have taken different, not necessarily better, turns. Together, we have created each other and our son, who was for so long the center of our lives. It is to that love—our shared passion for each other, my husband and I—to which I return over and over for sustenance as the world and my students and my writing changes. I have been extremely lucky to have passion for what I do—write and teach. Perhaps those are all we need—luck and passion. Without passion, luck will not come."