ElizabethStuckey 3-2

BY ALICE GORMAN - Does the name Elizabeth Stuckey-French ring a bell? How about the title of her book, “Revenge of the Radioactive Lady”? Would it arouse your curiosity to know that this book was chosen one of The Chicago Tribune’s Best Books of 2011, and it was awarded the Florida Book of the Year Award for 2011?

The New Yorker review stated: “Elizabeth Stuckey-French’s new novel, Revenge of the Radioactive Lady, is the sort of book that one devours quickly and then thinks, ‘I’ll have another one just like that, please.’ The trouble is, of course, that it’s difficult to find another book quite like this one.”

Fortunately for Boca Grande readers, Elizabeth Stuckey-French is a writer friend of Dr. Daly Walker who recommended her for the 2012 visiting writer’s series at the Johann Fust Community Library. She is coming to Boca Grande for a literary presentation in the garden at the library on Tuesday, March 6, at 4 p.m.

Elizabeth Stucky-French is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and is currently a teacher of Fiction Writing at Florida State University. Along with her husband, Ned Stuckey-French and Jane Burroway, she is co-author of “Writing Fiction: A Guide To The Narrative Craft.” This book is considered an authoritative text for fiction writers. Her other publications include a novel, “Mermaids On The Moon,” and a collection of short stories, “The First Paper Girl In Red Oak, Iowa.” Her short stories have appeared in Narrative Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Gettysburg Review, The Southern Review and O’Henry Prize Stories, 2005. She was awarded the James Michener Fellowship and has won grants from the Howard Foundation, the Indiana Arts Foundation and the Florida Arts Foundation.

Revenge of the Radioactive Lady was given a starred review by Publisher’s Weekly.

“Glowing with dark humor, Elizabeth Stuckey-French’s fabulously quirky second novel spotlights a would-be killer: Marylou Ahearn, a 77-year-old retired teacher in Memphis. She’s obsessed with killing Dr. Wilson Spriggs, who gave Marylou a radioactive cocktail in 1953 during a secret government study.”

The New York Times Sunday Book Review added: “The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady is populated exclusively by what used to be called oddballs, and therein lies its strength. A lesser writer would have made Marylou Ahearn more sprightly, more lovable, would have defanged her hatred of Wilson Spriggs. We don’t expect, in comic little-old-lady novels, to encounter childhood cancer, randy preachers and a boy building a homemade reactor in a tool shed. But Stucky-French knows that if you dig deep enough, we’re all oddballs, and the world is a perilous and unpredictable place.”

For an exceptional literary event, please come to meet Elizabeth Stuckey-French and enjoy her presentation at the Johann Fust Community Library on Tuesday, March 6 at 4 p.m. There will be a book signing and wine reception afterwards. The public is invited, the fee is $10. Members of the library are admitted free. For further information, call the library at 964-2488.

Alice Gorman is a vice president of the Johann Fust Community Library Board.

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