Horsley, Kate 1952–

PERSONAL:

Born April 17, 1952, in Richmond, VA; daughter of Joseph C. (a physician) and Alice Cabell (an artist) Horsley; married Rhodes Green Lockwood, November 15, 1981 (divorced); married Morgan Davie; children: (first marriage) Aaron Heath Parker. Ethnicity: "Anglo." Education: University of Richmond, B.A.; Western Kentucky University, M.A.; University of New Mexico, Ph.D., 1984. Politics: Socialist. Religion: Zen Buddhist. Hobbies and other interests: Cello, drawing.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute, Arts and Sciences, 525 Buena Vista SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108.

CAREER:

Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute, English instructor, 1987—, chair of English department, 1998-2000. Creative writing workshop instructor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

City of Albuquerque Citizenship Award, 1994; Albuquerque Bravo Award, Albuquerque Arts Alliance, 1996; Western States Arts Federation Award for Fiction, 1996, for A Killing in New Town; New Mexico Press Women's Award, 1996.

WRITINGS:

Crazy Woman, La Alameda Press (Albuquerque NM), 1992.

A Killing in New Town, La Alameda Press (Albuquerque NM), 1996.

Confessions of a Pagan Nun: A Novel, Shambhala Press (Boston, MA), 2001.

Careless Love; or, The Land of Promise, University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque NM), 2003.

The Changeling of Finnistuath: A Novel, Shambhala (Boston, MA), 2003, published as The Changeling: A Novel, 2005.

Black Elk in Paris: A Novel, Trumpeter Books (Boston, MA), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kate Horsley created a character caught in a world of fierce cultural conflict in her first novel, Crazy Woman. The novel follows the story of Sara Franklin, who is captured by the Apaches. Sara must first learn to survive as a slave and then as a woman who must earn the respect and trust of the tribe. Horsley explores the idea of captivity from the point of view of a woman in both her native culture and in her life among the Indians.

A Killing in New Town also profiles the life of a strong woman in a period of cultural change and conflict. Eliza Pelham lives in a town divided between the Old Town, where the railroad was supposed to help support the indigenous people, and the New Town, where the whites built their hotels and businesses, and then had the railroad stop there. Eliza, a woman grown tired of smalltown closed-mindedness, dreams of living in the open country. In her loneliness and depression, Eliza seeks escape through alcohol and an affair. Her life is suddenly transformed by the kidnapping of her two children. She sets out to find them with her unlikely allies, Bridle O'Doonan, the consumptive saloon girl, and an Eastern-educated Apache, Robert Youngman. "The most unforgettable section of the book comes with Eliza's quest for her kidnapped children that leads to a small mining camp in the mountains. No one is accountable for their actions, and whiskey, gambling, prostitution and death by gunfire are the only constants," wrote David Farmer in the Dallas Morning News. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly stated: "The title implies a murder story, and though the story is about murder, Horsley's intention is a double meaning that refers largely to the ‘killing’ that settlers hope to make in New Town. Small daily details and larger ideas make this unconventional western a truly compelling blend of adventure, South-western mythology and reality."

Horsley's Confessions of a Pagan Nun: A Novel is set in fifth-century Ireland. Although Christianity is already the dominant religion throughout Western Europe, Ireland still clings to its pagan beliefs. This novel is a fictional memoir of Gwynneve who, after losing her mother, joins a troupe of traveling entertainers and later apprentices herself for many years to Giannon, one of the last surviving Druids. Later in life, though remaining secretly unbaptized, she enters a convent where her literacy gets her a job as a translator of Christian theology. At St. Bridget's convent, Gwynneve copies the gospels and the writings of Saint Augustine—with whom she carries on a running intellectual battle—in the script she learned from Giannon. She also records her recollections of village and convent life for posterity.

Gwynneve contrasts the waning Druid influence and the emergent Christianity as she tells her story. One religious concept melds into the other. But she is not blind to the disappointing materialism the church brings with it. As Michael D. Langan wrote in the Buffalo News: "In the end, Gwynneve is alone…. She recognizes the consolation of nature, but lacks a full understanding of the new Christian law of love." Wendy Bethel commented in the Library Journal: "Her story is not just that of a strong woman making her way in a hostile world. It is also the story of what happens to a country when a new religion takes the place of the old. A beautiful and thought-provoking book." "Poetically written and marvelously researched, the novel offers complex theological arguments wrapped in a compelling story about memorable characters," wrote Booklist contributor Patricia Monaghan.

The Changeling of Finnistuath: A Novel is the story of Grey, a fourteenth-century Irish peasant who is raised as a boy after her father declares that if his eighth child is another girl, he will kill her. Grey's mother, who believes in fairies as well as what the priests teach her, convinces herself that Grey could be a changeling, treats her with the special consideration due an only son, and tells her that she must always conceal her body. Grey learns the truth when she experiences menarche, but she continues to live as a male. She later becomes a monastery whore, an unwed mother, and ultimately a warrior. She also survives the havoc wreaked by the Black Plague. Bethel reviewed this novel, calling it "an unusual and beautiful story."

Black Elk in Paris: A Novel is based on a true story. One of two Native Americans to come to Paris in 1888 with Buffalo Bill Cody for the Universal Exposition and unveiling of the Eiffel Tower is Choice, or Black Elk. The narrator, Philippe Normand, is a doctor and friend of Madou Balise, the young daughter of a bourgeois family. Madou becomes infatuated with Choice, a quiet man she perceives as being wise and serene. The family, however, considers him a savage and threatens to have him institutionalized. Reviewer's Bookwatch contributor Willis M. Buhle described the book as being "an engaging and entertaining novel."

Recording a period of dramatic historical change within a work of fiction has proven inspiring for Horsley, who told CA: "The powerful and challenging times in history compel me to look at the human struggle from the point of view of the average man or woman—the person who, though average, reacts with integrity and strength to seemingly crushing events or pervasive ignorance." Horsley also said: "I want to try to communicate the truth in a powerful and absorbing way that encourages compassion and integrity. I want to do for readers what writers have done for me—made me feel that I was not alone and given me a worthwhile means of escape from this cynical world: entertainment that absorbs and challenges…. Writers such as Hesse, Tolkein, and Kerouac have influenced my quest for depth and freedom in my own writing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 9, 1996, review of A Killing in New Town, p. 79; June 1, 2001, Patricia Monaghan, review of Confessions of a Pagan Nun: A Novel; February 1, 2006, Deborah Donovan, review of Black Elk in Paris: A Novel, p. 29

Buffalo News, September 2, 2001, Michael D. Langan, review of Confessions of a Pagan Nun, p. F7.

Dallas Morning News, April 6, 1997, David Farmer, review of A Killing in New Town, p. 8J.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2006, review of Black Elk in Paris, p. 9.

Library Journal, August, 2001, Wendy Bethel, review of Confessions of a Pagan Nun, p. 161; March 15, 2004, Wendy Bethel, review of The Changeling of Finnistuath: A Novel, p. 106; February 15, 2006, Wendy Bethel, review of Black Elk in Paris, p. 107.

Publishers Weekly, September 9, 1996, review of A Killing in New Town, p. 79; January 5, 2004, review of The Changeling of Finnistuath, p. 41; November 28, 2005, review of Black Elk in Paris, p. 22.

Reviewer's Bookwatch, May, 2006, Willis M. Buhle, review of Black Elk in Paris.

School Library Journal, November, 2001, Christine C. Menefee, review of Confessions of a Pagan Nun, p. 191.