Jordan, River

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Jordan, River

PERSONAL: Female. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, writing, camping, quantum physics, movies, travel, the Divine, inspiration, destiny.

ADDRESSES: Home—P.O. Box 22027, Nashville, TN 37221. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Jill Grinberg, Anderson Grinberg Literary & Film Agency, 244 5th Ave., 11th Fl., New York, NY 10001. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Founding member of Playwrights Project; creator of W.O.R.D. program and Writer's Room; mentor for Writer's Loft.

WRITINGS:

The Gin Girl (novel), Livingston Press (Livingston, AL), 2003.

The Messenger of Magnolia Street (novel), HarperSan-Francisco (San Francisco, CA), 2006.

Also author of several plays, including Virga, Soul, Rhythm and Blues, and Mama Jewels: Tales from Mullet Creek.

SIDELIGHTS: Novelist and playwright River Jordan described herself on her home page as "a Southerner with a global perspective." Not only is she dedicated to her own writing, which often focuses on spiritual struggles, but the author spends much of her free time helping developing writers improve their work. Jordan's first novel, The Gin Girl, is set on Toquilah, an island off the Gulf Coast of Florida. After three years in the mainland South, Mary, the narrator, returns to the island in search of her high school sweetheart, Joe. She finds that Joe is missing, but none of the strange island natives she encounters know what has happened to him. Mary's inquiries shake up the island and earn her the name "Gin Girl," which suggests, as one character explains to Mary, that she has come back to make everything right. The plot thickens when a destructive hurricane hits Toquilah during Mary's investigation. In Booklist, Barbara Bibel wrote of the leisurely plot that "those who crave atmosphere rather than action will find much to savor in this humid thriller."

The Messenger of Magnolia Street, Jordan's next book, tells the story of Nehemiah Trust, a Washington, DC political aid who is called back to his hometown of Shibboleth, Alabama, by his childhood friend Trice and Trice's brother, Billy. Since Nehemiah has been away, a dark force has been set free to wreak havoc on the town, and, as explained by the divine omniscient narrator, Nehemiah, Trice, and Billy have unknowingly become spiritual protectors of tiny Shibboleth. A stench of sulfur takes over the little town, and as other unnatural events become common, the three undertake the epic struggle of good versus evil. Booklist contributor Carol Haggas described the book's setting as "eerily sinister," while a Kirkus Reviews contributor acknowledged: "What could have been a soppy parable, or prose meant for the converted, is turned into a delight in Jordan's deft hands."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 2003, Barbara Bibel, review of The Gin Girl, p. 394; October 15, 2005, Carol Haggas, review of The Messenger of Magnolia Street, p. 30.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2005, review of The Messenger of Magnolia Street, p. 1048.

Publishers Weekly, September 26, 2005, review of The Messenger of Magnolia Street, p. 61.