{{infobox writer |name=Bette Howland |birth_name=Bette Lew Sotonoff |birth_date={{birth date|1937|1|28}} |birth_place=Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |death_date={{death date and age|2017|12|13|1937|1|28}} |death_place=Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. |occupation={{flatlist| *Writer *literary critic }} |spouse={{marriage|Howard Howland|1956|end=div}} |children=2 |parents=Sam Sotonoff<br>Jessie Berger }} '''Bette Howland''' (January 28, 1937 – December 13, 2017) was an American writer and literary critic.<ref name="TimesObit">{{cite news |last1=Genzlinger |first1=Neil |title=Bette Howland, Author and Protégée of Bellow's, Dies at 80 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/obituaries/bette-howland-author-and-protege-of-bellows-dies-at-80.html |accessdate=12 May 2019 |work=New York Times |date=17 December 2017}}</ref> She wrote for ''Commentary Magazine''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Braun|first=Aurel|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/searcharchive.cfm?authorKeywords=Bette%252520%252520Howland|title=Search « Commentary Magazine|publisher=Commentarymagazine.com|accessdate=2013-11-05}}</ref>
==Biography== Born '''Bette Lee Sotonoff''' to Sam Sotonoff, a machinist, and Jessie Berger, a homemaker, she focused much of her work on her native Chicago, though she left the city in 1975.<ref>{{cite news|last=Blades|first=John|title=Home Again|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/03/18/home-again-17/|access-date=November 5, 2013|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=March 18, 1993}}</ref>
In 1956, she married Howard Howland, a biologist. The couple had two sons but later separated and divorced, though she kept his surname.<ref name="TimesObit"/> She worked as a librarian and did editorial work for the University of Chicago Press. She was a protegee, and sometime lover of Saul Bellow.<ref name=Devers>{{cite web|url=http://lithub.com/bette-howland-the-tale-of-a-forgotten-genius|last=Devers |first=A.N. |title=Bette Howland: The Tale of a Forgotten Genius - Literary Hub|website=Lithub.com|date=4 December 2015 |accessdate=18 December 2017}}</ref>
Howland died on December 13, 2017, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, aged 80, while living near one of her sons, the philosopher Jacob Howland.<ref name="TimesObit"/>
==Critical reappraisal== In 2013 editor Brigid Hughes found Howland's book ''W-3'' and decided to include some of Howland's work in an issue of the literary journal ''A Public Space'' dedicated to obscure and forgotten women writers.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Devers |first1=A.N. |title=An Elegy for Bette Howland, a Writer Who Was Nearly Forgotten |date=19 December 2017 |url=https://longreads.com/2017/12/19/an-elegy-for-bette-howland-a-writer-who-was-nearly-forgotten/ |accessdate=11 April 2019}}</ref>
''A Public Space'' eventually decided to publish some of Howland's stories through their imprint in 2019, under the title ''Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage |url=https://apublicspace.org/books/calm_sea_and_prosperous_voyage |accessdate=11 April 2019}}</ref><ref name="ShtierReappraial">{{cite news |last1=Shtier |first1=Rachel |title=More Die of Heartbreak; Bette Howland steps out of the shadow of Saul Bellow |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/284224/bette-howland |accessdate=12 May 2019 |publisher=Tablet |date=7 May 2019}}</ref>
==Awards== * 1978: Guggenheim Fellow<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/6902-bette-howland|title=Bette Howland - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|publisher=Gf.org|accessdate=2013-11-05|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105211909/http://www.gf.org/fellows/6902-bette-howland|archivedate=2013-11-05}}</ref> * 1984: MacArthur Fellows Program<ref>[http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5499647/k.3CC8/Browse_Fellows_by_Area_The_Arts.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202053926/http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5499647/k.3CC8/Browse_Fellows_by_Area_The_Arts.htm|date=February 2, 2010 }}</ref> * 2022: Inductee in the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.<ref name=CLHOF>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Bette Howland: Inductee |url=https://chicagoliteraryhof.org/inductees/profile/bette-howland |access-date=2023-08-11 |website=Chicago Literary Hall of Fame}}</ref>
==Works== ===Books=== *''W-3'', Viking Press, 1974; {{ISBN|978-0-670-74863-1}} *''Blue in Chicago'', Harper & Row, 1978; {{ISBN|978-0-06-011957-7}} *''Things to Come and Go: Three Stories'', Knopf, 1983; {{ISBN|978-0-394-53032-1}}<ref name="KaplanReview">{{cite news |last1=Kaplan |first1=Joanna |title=DRY-EYED OBSERVER OF CITY LIVES (book review) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/20/books/dry-eyed-observer-of-city-lives.html |accessdate=12 May 2019 |work=New York Times |date=20 March 1983}}</ref> *''Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'', Brooklyn, NY : A Public Space Books, 2019, ISBN 978-0-9982675-0-0
===Short stories=== {| class="wikitable" |+ |- ! Title !! Publication !! Collected in |- | "Julia" || ''Quarterly Review of Literature'' 9.4 (1958) || - |- | "Sam Katz" || ''Epoch'' 9.2 (Fall 1958) || - |- | "Aronesti" || ''The Noble Savage'' 5 (1962) || ''Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'' |- | "Public Facilities" || ''Commentary'' (February 1972) || rowspan=6| ''Blue in Chicago'' |- | "Blue in Chicago" || ''Commentary'' (August 1972) |- | "To the Country" || ''Commentary'' (November 1973) |- | "Golden Age" || ''Commentary'' (April 1975) |- | "Twenty-Sixth and California" || rowspan=2| ''Blue in Chicago'' (1978) |- | "How We Got the Old Woman to Go" |- | "The Life You Gave Me" || ''Commentary'' (August 1982) || rowspan=3| ''Things to Come and Go'' |- | "Birds of a Feather" || rowspan=2| ''Things to Come and Go'' (1983) |- | "The Old Wheeze" |- | "Power Failure" || ''The American Voice'' 1 (1985) || rowspan=2|''Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'' |- | "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage" || ''TriQuarterly'' 104 (Winter 1999) |- | "Mengele's Leg" || ''Confrontation'' 101 (Spring/Summer 2008) || - |- | "A Visit" || ''A Public Space'' 23 (2015) || rowspan=2| ''Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'' |- | "German Lessons" || ''Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'' (2019) |- |}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Howland, Bette}} Category:1937 births Category:2017 deaths Category:Jewish American short story writers Category:Jewish American women writers Category:American women short story writers Category:Deaths from dementia in Oklahoma Category:Deaths from multiple sclerosis Category:People with multiple sclerosis Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:21st-century American Jews Category:21st-century American women writers Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American women writers Category:20th-century American short story writers Category:21st-century American short story writers