STEVENS, Marcus 1959-

PERSONAL: Born 1959.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Algonquin Books, 708 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

CAREER: Commercial director.

AWARDS, HONORS: Nomination, Alex Award, American Library Association, c. 2004, for Useful Girl.

WRITINGS:

The Curve of the World (novel), Algonquin Books (Chapel Hill, NC), 2002.

Useful Girl (novel), Algonquin Books (Chapel Hill, NC), 2004.

ADAPTATIONS: The Curve of the World was optioned for a film production, and an abridged audiocassette version was produced by Audio Scholar, Highbridge, 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Marcus Stevens parlayed his talents as a successful director of television commercials into the creation of what Booklist reviewer Thomas Gaughan called a "very visual novel" titled The Curve of the World. Stevens's first effort at fiction is an adventure story set in Africa. Lewis Burke, an American businessman, is aboard a flight that makes an emergency landing in the Congo, where he and other passengers are threatened by rebels toting guns. He flees into the jungle, losing his way as he wanders more deeply into the forest. Meanwhile, his estranged wife, Helen, has gone to Seattle to attend to her ill mother. Flashbacks tell the story of the couple's troubled marriage, strained when Helen shifted her priorities to their blind son, Shane. Worried about her husband, Helen flies with Shane to Africa to search for Lewis. The plot works toward its denouement with a series of narrow escapes.

The Curve of the World was generally well reviewed, although critics had some reservations. A Kirkus Reviews contributor, for example, spoke of "Stevens's competent but dry prose," and Harold Augenbraum noted in Library Journal the many stock characters in the book. According to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, "the plot is overworked, but Stevens displays competent writing and keen human insight." The same reviewer commented on the book's "vividly descriptive detail," and Augenbraum complimented Stevens for his "verve and solid writing."

Useful Girl, Stevens's second novel, is a contemporary plot interwoven with the story of a Cheyenne girl from the 1870s. Erin, a white girl, falls in love with Charlie, a Cheyenne, whose construction company unearths the bones of the Cheyenne girl. Erin imagines the girl's story as parallel to her own. Just as she flees both Charlie and her father after societal pressures discourage the lovers' relationship, so does the Indian girl flee with her camp from invading white soldier during the Indian Wars. Charli Osborne, writing in School Library Journal, said that the book will appeal to teens, who nevertheless "may be left cold by the battle scenes," but a Publishers Weekly reviewer said that the "descriptions of late 19th-century battles and living conditions are unsettling in their vivid and authentic detail." A Kirkus Reviews writer criticized the "heavy-handed plotting" of the book but concluded that Useful Girl is "a nicely detailed blend of historical fiction and coming-of-age saga."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2002, Thomas Gaughan, review of The Curve of the World, p. 1094; March 1, 2004, Joanne Wilkinson, review of Useful Girl, p. 1141.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2002, review of TheCurve of the World, p. 137; February 15, 2004, review of Useful Girl, p. 152.

Library Journal, February 1, 2002, Harold Augenbraum, review of The Curve of the World, p. 133; March 1, 2004, Debbie Bogenschutz, review of Useful Girl, p. 109.

Publishers Weekly, June 11, 2001, John F. Baker, "Book, Movie Deals for First Novel," p. 24; February 11, 2002, review of The Curve of the World, p. 158; March 8, 2004, review of Useful Girl, p. 47.

School Library Journal, June, 2004, Charli Osborne, review of Useful Girl, p. 178.