Swann, Maxine 1969-

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Swann, Maxine 1969-

PERSONAL:

Born 1969. Education: Columbia University, B.A., 1994; Université de Paris VII, M.A., 1997.

CAREER:

Writer. Worked variously as a French-English translator, English teacher, and screenplay writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Cohen Award, 1997, for best short story published in Ploughshares, 1997, O. Henry Award, Doubleday, 1998, and Pushcart Prize, 1998, all for "Flower Children."

WRITINGS:

Serious Girls (novel), Picador (New York, NY), 2003.

Flower Children, Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Originally from rural Pennsylvania, Maxine Swann took a year off after graduating from high school to travel in Europe and Alaska, then went on to earn a degree in comparative literature from Columbia University. Swann then relocated to Paris, where she began a master's degree and also took on her first professional writing job, pairing with Argentine film director Juan Pablo Domenech to write a screenplay. It was in Paris that Swann composed her first published short story, "Flower Children," which ultimately earned her a number of awards. In 1997 she moved to Pakistan where she taught English and embarked on writing her first novel. Serious Girls follows two young women attending a prestigious boarding school who, as "outsiders," become close friends; their lives become complicated when they begin sneaking off to spend weekends in New York City and they both become involved in dysfunctional relationships.

A contributor to Kirkus Reviews commented: "First-novelist Swann captures with marvelous clarity the sense young adults have of waiting for 'life' to begin.… Wonderfully perceptive and precise about an age that's too often portrayed in vague generalities." Entertainment Weekly reviewer Emily Mead described Serious Girls as "a delicate, clear-eyed distillation of teenage girls' greatest concerns." Gillian Engberg wrote in a review for Booklist: "In her debut novel, [Swann] writes with a cool detachment and poetic beauty." Engberg went on to call the book "an elegant yet raw coming-of-age story." New York Times Book Review contributor Laura Moser regarded the book as "exquisitely written" with "elegiac prose and vivid recollection."