Wells, Kellie 1962- (Kellie J. Wells)

PERSONAL:

Born 1962, in Kansas City, KS. Education: University of Kansas, Lawrence, B.A., B.S.; University of Montana, Missoula, M.F.A.; University of Pittsburgh, M.F.A; Western Michigan University, Ph.D., 1999.

ADDRESSES:

Home—St. Louis, MO. Office— Department of English, Washington University, CBX 1122, St. Louis, MO 63130. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Georgia College, Milledgeville, former staff member; Washington University, St. Louis, MO, writer in residence.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Kate Stephens "Get the Hell out of the Midwest" fellowship, University of Kansas; A.B. Guthrie Prize, 1991, for "Telling the Chicken"; Flannery O'Connor Fiction Award, 2001, for Compression Scars: Stories; Rona Jaffe Foundation Award, 2002; New Writer Award for fiction, Great Lakes College Association.

WRITINGS:

Compression Scars: Stories, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 2002.

Skin (novel; "Flyover Fiction" series), edited by Ron Hansen, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 2006.

Contributor to books, including Flannery O'Connor: A Celebration of Genius, edited by Sarah Gordon, Hill Street Press (Athens, GA), 2000; and Birds in the Hand: Fiction and Poetry about Birds, Northpoint Press (New York, NY), 2004. Contributor to periodicals and literary journals, including Kenyon Review, Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, and Ninth Letter.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kellie Wells's debut story collection, Compression Scars: Stories, was awarded the Flannery O'Connor Fiction Award. A reviewer for the Emerging Writers Forum Web site wrote: "Wells, with the eleven stories within Compression Scars, has captured the combination of religious confusion and the beautiful grotesque that O'Connor nailed better than anybody." The title story concerns Duncan, whose moped accident has resulted in excessive, and potentially fatal, scar tissue. Other stories feature brother and sister conjoined twins and a boy who was conceived in order to provide bone marrow for his sister, who is dying of cancer. There are a great many references in these stories to internal organs, blood, and the biology of the human body. Booklist contributor Carol Haggas wrote that these "phantasmal stories shimmer with a dreamlike vibrancy."

Wells followed with her novel Skin, a book of linked stories set in the eccentric town of What Cheer, Kansas. Duncan lives there, as well as Rachel Loomis, who still bears scars from childhood abuse by her father, and Rachel's daughter, Ruby Tuesday, who is observed giving birth to fruit. Senior citizen Charlotte McCorkle believes she killed her husband. A cow offers philosophy to the town's residents. Martin LeFavor's father is taken away by aliens because they want his skin. In reviewing this book, Haggas wrote: "Wells writes with an intoxicating lyricism."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 2002, Carol Haggas, review of Compression Scars: Stories, p. 209; February 15, 2006, Carol Haggas, review of Skin, p. 49.

Charlotte Observer, November 3, 2002, Jean Blish Siers, review of Compression Scars.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2002, review of Compression Scars, p. 1171; February 15, 2006, review of Skin, p. 160.

Library Journal, October 1, 2002, Marcia Tager, review of Compression Scars, p. 130.

Publishers Weekly, February 6, 2006, review of Skin, p. 46.

Review of Contemporary Fiction, summer, 2006, Irving Malin, review of Skin, p. 92.

ONLINE

Emerging Writers Forum,http://www.breaktech.net/EmergingWritersForum/ (November 26, 2002), Dan Wickett, "Interview with Kellie Wells"; (November 21, 2006), review of Compression Scars.

Kellie Wells Home Page,http://www.kelliewells.com (November 21, 2006).

Montanan Online, University of Montana, Missoula, Web site,http://umt.edu/ (November 21, 2006), Jodi Werner, "Swallowing Dreams Whole," interview.