Robb Forman Dew

Robb Forman Dew is an American author. She has described writing as "a strange absorption about this alternate world and the way it mixes with your real life."^[1]

Born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, October 26, 1946, the daughter of Oliver Duane Forman and Helen Ransom Forman,^[2] Dew grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where her father set up his medical practice.^[3] She also spent a great deal of her childhood in Gambier, Ohio, where she visited and occasionally lived with her maternal grandparents, Robb Reavill and John Crowe Ransom. During that time she found herself surrounded by a wide range of poets and writers connected with the Kenyon Review, or who were friends, colleagues, or former students of her grandfather's. Her godfather was Robert Penn Warren, who was a close friend of the family's.^[1]

She attended Louisiana State University^[2] but did not graduate. In 1968, she married Charles B. Dew. The couple moved to Columbia, Missouri, in 1969, where Charles taught history at the University of Missouri at Columbia. They have two sons, Charles Stephen, born in 1971, and John Forman, born in 1973. The family moved to Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1977, where Charles B. Dew is now the Ephraim Williams Professor of American History at Williams College.^[4]

Dew's first novel, Dale Loves Sophie to Death, was published in 1981 and won the 1982 National Book Award in category First Novel.^[5] She has taught at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, has received a Guggenheim fellowship, and was awarded an honorary degree by Kenyon College in 2007.^[6] Her latest novel is Being Polite to Hitler.^[7]

Books

Dew's books include: (fiction)

• Dew, Robb Forman (1981). Dale Loves Sophie to Death. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. ISBN 0-374-13450-2.
• Dew, Robb Forman (1984). The Time of Her Life. New York: W. Morrow. ISBN 0-688-03918-9.
• Dew, Robb Forman (1992). Fortunate Lives. New York: W. Morrow. ISBN 0-688-10781-8.
• Dew, Robb Forman (2001). The Evidence Against Her: A Novel. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-89019-7.
• Dew, Robb Forman (2005). The Truth of the Matter: A Novel. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-89004-9.
• Dew, Robb Forman (2011). Being Polite to Hitler. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-88950-4.

(non-fiction)

• Dew, Robb Forman (1994). The Family Heart: A Memoir of When Our Son Came Out. Boston: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-62450-8.
• Dew, Robb Forman (1992). A Southern Thanksgiving: Recipes and Musings for a Manageable Feast. Harlow: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-63215-2.

References

1. Shoup, Barbara; Denman, Margaret-Love (2009). "Novel Ideas: Contemporary Authors Share the Creative Process". University of Georgia Press. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
2. "Author Detail: Robb Forman Dew". Ohio Center for the Book, at the Cleveland Public Library. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
3. Dew, Robb Forman. "Why I never write about the South: a guest dispatch from Robb Forman Dew". Maude Newton Blog, Occasional literary links, amusements, culture, politics, and rants. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
4. "History at Williams College, Charles B. Dew". Williams College. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
5. "National Book Awards – 1982". National Book Foundation. Retrieved February 28, 2012. (With essay by Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
   • First novels or first works of fiction were recognized from 1980 to 1985.
6. "White House correspondent David Gregory to speak at Commencement". Kenyon College Newsroom. April 2007. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
7. Wolitzer, Meg (January 14, 2011). "Woman's Work". The New York Times.

External links

• "Ohio Center for the Book".
• "Book Reporter.com".
• "The BEATRICE Interview: 2001".
• "Google Books: : Contemporary Authors Share the Creative Process".
• "Kenyon College".
• "Maude Newton Blog".
• "Hachette Book Group".