Corinne Demas

Vita and Bibliography

EDUCATION

Ph.D., English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University.
      Dissertation topic: The Short Story: Writer's Control/Reader's Response.

M. Phil., English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University.
     Areas of specialization: contemporary British and American literature, Shakespeare,
     seventeenth century, comparative short story.

M.A., highest honors, English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University.

A.B., magna cum laude, Jackson College, Tufts University.

Diploma, Hunter College High School, New York, N.Y.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Mount Holyoke College
Professor, 1998--present.
Associate Professor, 1984--1998.
Assistant Professor, 1978--1984.

University of Pittsburgh Instructor, 1970--1978.

Chatham College Lecturer, 1977--1978.

FELLOWSHIPS

National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship.

PRIZES

Winner, 2004 ASPCA Henry Bergh Children's Book Award, Saying Goodbye to Lulu

Finalist, Massachusetts Book Award, The Disappearing Island, 2001.

Breakthrough Contest winner, University of Missouri Press.

Lawrence Foundation Prize for the best story to appear in Michigan Quarterly
Review.

PEN Syndicated Fiction Competition winner.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Fiction Editor, The Massachusetts Review.

Memberships: The Authors Guild, PEN, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Readings: The University of Pittsburgh Writers' Conference, The Broadside Bookshop, Hatfield Book Club, Amherst Woman's Club, Mount Holyoke College, University of Massachusetts MFA Program, The Northampton Center for the Arts, Mount Holyoke Writers' Conference, Amherst College, Wellfleet Public Library, Mount Holyoke College New York Club, Jeffery Amherst Bookshop, Titcomb's Bookshop (Sandwich, MA,) Borders Books (Hyannis, MA,) Booksmith (S. Dennis, MA,) Armchair Bookstore (Dennis, MA,)Borders Books & Music (New York, NY,) Odyssey Bookshop, Stuyvesant Town Senior Center (New York, NY,) Smith College Campus School, Edwards Books (Springfield,MA).

Author presentations: Deerfield Elementary School, Fort River Elementary School, Mosier Elementary School, Plains Elementary School, South Hadley Middle School, Pelham Elementary School, North-East Middle School (Reading PA), Green Meadows School (Hamden, MA), Hitchcock Center for the Environment, Amherst Book and Plow Festival, Orleans Elementary School and The Snow Library (Orleans, MA), Swift River Elementary School (Belchertown, MA), Cabbages & Kings Bookshop ( Chatham, MA), Wellfleet Public Library, Benefit for the Wellfleet Historical Society, Brewster Bookshop (Brewster, MA), Yellow Umbrella Books( Chatham, MA), Bikerton & Ripley (Martha's Vineyard,) Eight Cousins Bookshop (Falmouth, MA,) Bunch of Grapes Bookshop (Martha's Vineyard,) Buttonwood Books (Cohasset, MA,) National Writers Union "Write Angles" Conference panel, Mystic Seaport (Mystic, CN), Western New England College, Gaylord Memorial Library (South Hadley, MA), National Writers Union "Write Angles" Conference panel, The Taft School.

Judge: The Sparks Prize (MFA Creative Writing Program, Department of English University of Notre Dame), 2004; Hampshire Life Short Fiction contest (Daily Hampshire Gazette), 1993; The Odyssey Bookshop Children's Writing Contest, 1992, 2000-2003.

Massachusetts Reading Association, presenter, 2004.
Pioneer Valley Reading Council, keynote speaker 2002.
Workshop, Truro Center for the Arts, 2002
Visiting Writer, Goddard College MFA Program, 1981.
Guest Writer, Westfield State College Arts Festival, 1979.

LISTED

A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers
Contemporary Authors

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Note:
All publications before 2000 are under the names Corinne Demas Bliss
All publications in 2000 and after are under the name Corinne Demas.

BOOKS

Great American Short Stories: From Hawthorne to Hemingway (Editor), Barnes & Noble Classics Series, 2004.

Eleven Stories High: Growing Up in Stuyvesant Town, 1948--1968 (memoir), State University of New York Press. September 2000.

What We Save for Last (short story collection), Milkweed Editions, 1992.

Daffodils or the Death of Love (short story collection), University of Missouri Press, 1983.

The Same River Twice (novel), Athenaeum, 1982.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Valentine Surprise (picture book, illustrated by R.W.Alley), Walker & Co., 2007

Yuck! Stuck in the Muck (leveled reader, illustrated by Laura Rader), Scholastic, 2006.

Two Christmas Mice, (picture book, illustrated by Stephanie Roth), Holiday House, 2005.

Saying Goodbye to Lulu, (picture book, illustrated by Ard Hoyt), Little, Brown, 2004.

The Boy Who was Generous With Salt, (picture book, illustrated by Michael Hays), Cavendish Children's Books, Marshall Cavendish, 2002.

The Magic Apple (retelling of a Jewish folktale, illustrated by Alexi Natchev), Golden Books, 2002.

Nina's Waltz (picture book, illustrated by Deborah Lanino), Orchard Books, 2000.

If Ever I Return Again (middle-grade novel), HarperCollins. Spring 2000.
           French edition, Si Je Reviens, Bayard Jeunesse. Fall, 2002

Hurricane! (picture book, illustrated by Lenice Strohmeier), Cavendish Children's Books, Marshall Cavendish, 2000.

The Disappearing Island (picture book, illustrated by Ted Lewin), Simon & Schuster, 2000.

The Perfect Pony (leveled reader, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers), Random House, 2000.

The Littlest Matryoshka (picture book, illustrated by Kathryn Brown), Hyperion Books for Children, 1999.

Snow Day (sequel to The Shortest Kid in the World, illustrated by Nancy Poydar), Random House, 1998.

Electra and the Charlotte Russe (picture book, illustrated by Michael Garland), Boyds Mills Press, 1997.

The Shortest Kid in the World (leveled reader, illustrated by Nancy Poydar), Random House, 1995.

Matthew's Meadow (environmental fable, illustrated by Ted Lewin), Harcourt Brace, 1992. Voyager Books (paperback), 1997. Adapted for stage by the Regional Touring Theatre Company of Western Illinois University (produced Spring, 1994).

That Dog Melly! (picture book, illustrated by the author), Hastings House,1981.

SHORT STORIES

“Last Stars,” Notre Dame Review, No. 22 (Summer, 2006).

“After the Abernathys,” The Women’s Times, Vol. 7, No. 4 (August, 2005).

"In Memory of a Lovely Afternoon," The Kenyon Review, Vol.XXII, No.3/4 (Summer/Fall, 2000).

"The Village," Notre Dame Review, No. 2 (Summer, 1996).

"Mirrors," American Literary Review, Vol.VI, No.1 (Spring, 1995).

"Certain Treacheries," Harvard Review, No. 3 (Winter, 1993).

"Learning Greek," The Southern Review, Vol.28, No.3 (July, 1992).

"In the Perfect Privacy of His Own Mind," Glimmer Train, Issue No. 2 (Spring, 1992).

"Luba By Night," Fiction, Vol. 10, Nos. 1 & 2 (Spring, 1991). Included in What We Save For Last.

"Swimming to Albania," Shenandoah, Vol. 41 No. 1 (Spring, 1991).

"The Other Side," The Agni Review, 28, (Spring, 1989).

"Small Sins," Columbia, Vol. 14, No. 4 (February--March, 1989). Included in What We Save For Last.

"Birthday Card." Special Report: Fiction, (February--April,1989). Included in What We Save For Last.

"Forbidden Waters," The Virginia Quarterly Review, Vol. 64, (Winter 1988). Included in What We Save For Last.

"Breaking Trail," The Providence Journal Sunday Magazine, (December 15, 1988).

"Babylove," The Agni Review , 24/25 (Fall, 1987). Included in What We Save For Last.

"The Dream Broker," Redbook, (July, 1987). Included in What We Save For Last.

"Memorial Day," (PEN Syndicated Fiction Competition winner) San Francisco Chronicle (May 24, 1987); St. Petersburg Times (May 30, 1987); Kansas City Star (June 12, 1988). Produced by National Public Radio for NPR Playhouse: The Sound of Writing II. Included in What We Save For Last.

"The Cutting Edge of the Snow," O. Henry Festival Stories, 1987

"What We Save for Last" The Providence Journal Sunday Magazine, January 3, 1987, New England Living, December, 1990. Included in What We Save For Last.

"Payment" (originally titled "Reparations") McCall's, (August, 1986). Included in What We Save For Last.

"Headlines," Michigan Quarterly Review, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 (Summer, 1985). (winner of the Lawrence Foundation Prize.) Included in What We Save For Last.

"American Authors Incorporated," Fiction Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 10 (Summer, 1985).

"Separate Lives," The Agni Review, 22 (Spring, 1985).

"Among the Lettuce," Cutbank 23, (Spring, 1985).

"Ears," The Boston Review, Vol. IX, No. 5 (October, 1984). Included in What We Save For Last.

"Margaret, Are You Grieving?," Mademoiselle, (April, 1984). Included in What We Save For Last.

"Consuming Passion," (originally titled "Pizza") Mademoiselle, (February,1984). Included in Daffodils or the Death of Love.

"Third Street," The Boston Globe Magazine, (December 6, 1981).

"Lester Schwabb I, II, III, IV, V," Ploughshares Special Fiction Issue, (Fall, 1980). Included in Daffodils or the Death of Love.

"Roommates," (originally titled "Peter Rabbit") Esquire, Vol. 93, No. 4 (April, 1980). Included in Daffodils or the Death of Love.

"Light Boat," The Madison Review, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring, 1979).

"Mt. Kisco," The Old Red Kimona, Vol. VII (Spring, 1979).

"Secrets," Secrets and Other Stories by Women, Gallimaufry 14, 1979. Included in Daffodils or the Death of Love.

"Horse Throws Rider in Field," Newsart, The New York Smith, Vol. 2, No. 5 (August, 1978).

"Daffodils or the Death of Love," The Agni Review, 9 (Fall, 1978). Included in Daffodils or the Death of Love.

"Rings," The Ohio Review, Vol. XVIII, No. 3 (Fall, 1977).

"McCaferty and Sons," Tales, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Fall, 1976).

"Mr. Lundy," Kansas Quarterly, Vol. 8, Nos. 3-4 (Summer-Fall, 1976).

"Slow Moose," Transatlantic Review, Nos. 53/54 (February, 1976). Included in Daffodils or the Death of Love.

"Traveling During Pregnancy," The Little Magazine, Vol. 8, Nos. 3-4 (Fall-Winter, 1975-76).

"Fly," Women Becoming, Vol. 2, No. 1 (February, 1974).

"Holy Grail," Fragments, Vol. XIV, No. 1 (1973).

"Winter-Tight Lodgings," Southern Humanities Review, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Fall,1973).

CHILDREN'S STORY

"Furball's Furcut," Ladybug Magazine Vol. 2, No. 6 (February, 1992).

NON-FICTION

"Our Town", by Corinne Demas, The New York Times, September 3, 2006. (read this Op-ed online.)

"An Accidental Utopia", The New York Times, Sunday, November 19, 2000.

Letter to the Editor, response to "The Upscaling of Stuyvesant Town," The New York Times, February 18, 2001.

Review of The Tales of Arturo Vivante, Harvard Review, Premier Issue (Spring, 1992).

Short Review of Even Now by Michelle Latiolais, Seventeen, (December 1990).

"Coyotes," Columbia (Summer 1990).

Short review of Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad by Bebe Moore Campbell, Seventeen, (August, 1989).

"Against the Current: A Conversation with Anita Desai," The Massachusetts Review, Vol. XXIX, No. 3 (Fall, 1988).

"Older Mommies," Columbia, Vol. 14, No. 2 (November, 1988).

"Secrets, Power and the Polls," ("Private Lives" column) St. Petersburg Times, November 2, 1988.

"The Final Indignities of An Author," Poets & Writers Magazine, Vol. 16, No. 2 March/April, 1988.

"The Dillman Dogs," ("Private Lives" column) St. Petersburg Times, January 27, 1988.

Review of The Heroic Age, by Stratis Haviaras, The Boston Review, Vol. IX, No. 3 (June, 1984).

"Living Like Gypsies," Pittsburgh Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 10 (October, 1977).

"Going into a Trance," Pittsburgh Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 8 (August, 1977).

"Rediscovering the Broadway Limited," Pittsburgh Magazine, Vol. 8 No. 2 (October, 1977).

"Curl Up and Read," book review column, Seventeen, (May, 1964).

POETRY

“Smalls,” New England Watershed Magazine ( June/July  2006).

"To You There in Dayton" and "Diaphragm Poem," Images, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Fall, 1977).

"Pact," Poetry &, Vol. 2, No. 1 (July-August, 1977).

"Blue Hole," Poetry &, Vol. 1, No. 11 (June, 1977).

RADIO AND TELEVISION COMMENTARIES AND INTERVIEWS

"Leaving the Tarantula at Home" commentary on All Things Considered, National Public Radio, November 24, 2004.
(Click title to listen)

"Political Pet" commentary on Public Radio Station WFCR, October 13, 2004.
(Click title to listen)

"Author Snapshots" interview for "WGBY Reads" on-air literacy fair, WGBY TV, aired November 17, 2001.

"Coyotes" commentary on All Things Considered, National Public Radio, December 29, 2000.
(Click title to listen)

"New York & Co." interview with host Leonard Lopate, WNYC Radio, New York City, September 18, 2000.

"Here and Now" interview with Robin Young, WBUR Radio, June 26, 2000.

"Cape Cod Journal" interview with Bob Seay, WOMR Radio, July 7, 2000.

Interview with Naomi Arenberg WCAI/WNAN Radio, July 27, 2000.

Back to Top