{{short description|Australian author|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Use Australian English|date=January 2017}} <!-- Deleted image removed: thumb|184px|right|Jane Alison -->
'''Jane Alison''' (born 1961) is an Australia-born author based in the U.S.
==Early life and education== Jane Alison was born in Canberra in 1961, the child of Australian diplomats.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1487364|title=Alison, Jane (1961-) - People and organisations|via=Trove|language=en|access-date=2019-06-28}}</ref> When she was four, her parents met and soon exchanged partners with a couple in the U.S. Foreign Service whose family mirrored her own.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Antipodes-Jane-Alison/dp/0151012806 Jane Alison, ''The Sisters Antipodes,'' Houghton, 2009]</ref><ref>["In 1965, when I was four, my parents met another couple, got along well, and within a few months traded partners. This was in Canberra, where my father, an Australian diplomat, had just brought us home from a posting in Washington. The other couple were American but diplomats, too, finishing a post in Canberra before returning to the U.S. Both men were in their early thirties, tall, slim, and ambitious; both women were smart and good-looking. Both couples had two little girls the same ages, and the younger girls shared a birthday and almost the same name. This was my counterpart, Jenny, and me. The two families had so much in common, people said: they must meet." from ''The Sisters Antipodes,'' Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009]</ref><ref>[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jane-alison/the-sisters-antipodes/ "An incomparable family story, exquisitely, stunningly told"]</ref> Her name and nationality changed, and she subsequently grew up in Los Angeles; Quito, Ecuador; and Washington, D.C., where her mother took Alison and her siblings when the second marriage dissolved. She attended public schools in D.C. and then earned a B.A. in classics from Princeton University in 1983.<ref>[http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/web_exclusives/features/features_35.html Jane Alison '83 discusses her first novel, The Love-Artist]</ref><ref>[https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/428/article/815509/pdf]</ref> Before writing fiction, she worked as an administrator for the National Endowment for the Humanities,<ref>[http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/04/1018/3a.shtml Jane Alison, a concentrator in classics and a member of the class of 1983, used her training in Latin and Greek to get a first job at the National Endowment for the Humanities]</ref> as a production artist for the Washington City Paper, as an editor for the Miami New Times, and as a proposal and speech writer for Tulane University. She also worked as a freelance editor and illustrator before attending Columbia University to study creative writing.
==Literary career== Alison's first novel, about the exile of Roman poet Ovid, ''The Love-Artist'', was published in 2001 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.<ref>[http://us.macmillan.com/author/janealison Farrar, Straus & Giroux]</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/24/books/books-of-the-times-a-poet-who-makes-love-as-artfully-as-he-writes.html Michiko Kakutani, "A Poet Who Makes Love as Artfully as he Writes"]</ref> It was followed by ''The Marriage of the Sea'', a novel set in New Orleans and Venice about four men, three women, food, architecture, love, despair, and water, named a New York Times Notable Book of 2003.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/25/books/fluid-dynamics.html Margot Livesey, "Fluid Dynamics"]</ref><ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940CE4DF113AF934A35751C1A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all An intricate, elegant novel that ponders the connections among love, illusion and fidelity in the permutations of eight central characters behaving in two romantic and romanticized cities, New Orleans and Venice.]</ref> ''Natives and Exotics,''<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/books/review/natives-and-exotics-transplants.html Sue Halpern, "''Natives and Exotics: Transplants''"]</ref> from 2005—about one family's centuries-long effort to belong to a land, set in Scotland, the Azores, Australia, and Ecuador—was one of that summer's recommended readings by Alan Cheuse<ref>[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4701145 Alan Cheuse: An Armful of Books for Summer]</ref> of National Public Radio.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4664336 National Public Radio Excerpt: 'Natives and Exotics']</ref> Her highly acclaimed memoir, ''The Sisters Antipodes,''<ref>[https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/family-swap-triggers-a-memoir-scandal-20091121-ir38.html ''Sydney Morning Herald'', "Family Swap Triggers a Memoir Scandal"]</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/02/family-heartache-jane-alison Jane Alison talks family heartache and tragedy to Louise France in ''The Guardian'']</ref> traces her upbringing in a doubled, mirrored family and was excerpted as a "Modern Love" column.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/fashion/01love.html Jane Alison, "Swapping Fathers, Swiftly"] </ref> She followed it with a nonfiction novel, ''Nine Island,''<ref>[https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/70802-the-difference-between-solitude-and-loneliness-pw-talks-with-jane-alison.html ''Publishers Weekly'' interview with Jane Alison, "The Difference Between Solitude and Loneliness"]</ref> about living alone in Miami and wrestling with the problem of sexual love; at the same time, she worked on translations of Ovid's stories of sexual transformation, ''Change Me.''<ref>[https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199941650/ ''Change Me'', Oxford University Press]</ref> Her 2019 book on the craft and theory of writing, ''Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative'', is about finding unconventional structures in narrative beyond the masculo-sexual dramatic arc. The book is widely taught and cited in creative writing programs across the country, as well as being named a Best Book of 2019 by ''Atlantic Monthly'' and elsewhere.<ref>[https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/12/15-best-books-of-2019/603880/ ''Atlantic Monthly,'' Best Books of 2019]</ref><ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-deeply-wacky-pleasures-of-jane-alisons-meander-spiral-explode Kate Waldman, "The Deeply Wacky Pleasures of Jane Alison's ''Meander, Spiral, Explode''"]</ref> Her most recent book is ''Villa E'', a novel inspired by the legendary battle between Modernist architects Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier.<ref>[https://readershouse.co.uk/jane-alison-explores-the-boundaries-of-storytelling-and-memory/ ''Readers House'' interview, "Jane Alison Explores the Boundaries of Storytelling and Memory"]</ref> Her short fiction and critical writing have appeared in ''The Paris Review'', ''New York Times'', ''Washington Post'', ''Boston Globe'', ''Oprah Daily'', ''Lit Hub'', and elsewhere, and her books have been translated into a dozen languages, as well as adapted to music by composer Thomas Sleeper.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut7epZxdRok Thomas Sleeper, composer, "The Sisters Antipodes," mini-opera]</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?app=desktop&list=PL8F41AE5949410DBB Thomas Sleeper, composer, "Xenia," a song cycle]</ref>
She has taught writing and literature at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Miami and since 2013 has been professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia.<ref>https://creativewriting.virginia.edu/people/jane-alison]</ref> She divides her time between Charlottesville and Campeche, Mexico, with her partner, architect Edward Tuck. <ref>[https://www.instagram.com/p/DS3Y0f0Ebzm/ The Art of Living: "We recently visited with Edward Tuck, an architect from New York, and his partner, author Jane Alison, at their newly renovated house in the Centro Historico."]</ref>
==Bibliography==
===Memoir=== * ''The Sisters Antipodes'', {{ISBN|0-15-101280-6}} (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009)
=== Fiction === * ''The Love-Artist: A Novel'', {{ISBN|0-312-42006-4}} (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001) * ''The Marriage of the Sea'', {{ISBN|0-374-19941-8}} (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003) * ''Natives and Exotics'', {{ISBN|0-15-603247-3}} (Harcourt, 2005) * ''Nine Island'', {{ISBN|978-1-936787-12-8}} (Catapult, 2016) * ''Villa E: A Novel'' {{ISBN|1324095059}} (Liveright Publishing/ WW Norton, 2024)
=== Translation === * ''Change Me: Stories of Sexual Transformation from Ovid'' {{ISBN|0199941653}} (Oxford, 2014)
===Criticism and other non-fiction=== * ''Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative'', {{ISBN|978-1948226134}} (Catapult, 2019)
==References== <references />
== External links == * [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE3DD1F30F937A15757C0A9679C8B63&scp=13&sq=jane+alison&st=nyt Michiko Kakutani, "A Poet Who Makes Love as Artfully as He Writes," review of ''The Love Artist'' in ''New York Times''] * [https://university.open.ac.uk/sites/www.open.ac.uk.arts.research.pvcrs/files/files/ecms/web-content/20133JaneAlison.pdf Fiona Cox, ''Ovid's Presence in Contemporary Women's Writing,'' Oxford] [https://academic.oup.com/book/7382/chapter-abstract/152211764?redirectedFrom=fulltext] * [https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/428/article/815509/pdf Jane Alison, "Ancient Narrative Now," in ''Arion''] * [https://www.academia.edu/1916770/Jane_Alison_The_Love_Artist Charilaos Michalopoulos, "''The Love Artist'': Love in Exile or Exile in Love?" in ''Two Thousand Years of Responses to Ovid's Exile,'' Oxford] * [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404E0DE163EF936A15756C0A9659C8B63&scp=1&sq=The%20Marriage%20of%20the%20Sea&st=cse Margot Livesey, "Fluid Dynamics," review of ''The Marriage of the Sea'' in ''New York Times''] * [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E1D91730F936A25756C0A9639C8B63 Sue Halpern, "Transplants," review of ''Natives and Exotics'' in ''New York Times''] * [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/02/family-heartache-jane-alison Interview with Jane Alison about ''Sisters Antipodes'' in ''Guardian''] * [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/fashion/01love.html "Swapping Fathers, Swiftly," "Modern Love" excerpt of ''Sisters Antipodes'' in ''New York Times''] * [https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/family-swap-triggers-a-memoir-scandal-20091121-ir38.html Article about Jane Alison and ''Sisters Antipodes'' in ''Sydney Morning Herald''] * [https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-deeply-wacky-pleasures-of-jane-alisons-meander-spiral-explode Kate Waldman, "The Deeply Wacky Pleasures of Jane Alison's ''Meander, Spiral, Explode''," review in ''New Yorker''] * [https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/03/27/beyond-the-narrative-arc/ Jane Alison, "Beyond the Narrative Arc," excerpt of ''Meander, Spiral, Explode'' in ''Paris Review''] * [https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/book-reviews/eileen-gray-takes-her-rightful-place-in-the-sun-in-jane-alisons-novel-villa-e/a809342702.html Review of ''Villa E''in ''Irish Independent''] * [https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/31/arts/jane-alisons-novel-villa-e-stars-le-corbusier-modernist-icon/ Hamilton Cain, "Jane Alison's Novel ''Villa E'' Stars Le Corbusier," review of ''Villa E'' in ''Boston Globe''] * [https://world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/insight/on-the-spiraling-style Review of ''Villa E'' in ''World Architects''] * [https://readershouse.co.uk/jane-alison-explores-the-boundaries-of-storytelling-and-memory/ Interview with Jane Alison about all her works in ''Readers House''] * [https://lithub.com/a-monstrous-spiral-how-narrative-form-can-bring-a-story-to-life/ Jane Alison, "A Monstrous Spiral," in ''Lit Hub''] * [https://lithub.com/immaculate-erotic-and-quintessentially-modern-on-edna-obriens-night/ Jane Alison, "Immaculate, Erotic, and Quintessentially Modern: On Edna O'Brien's ''Night'', in ''Lit Hub''] * [https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/a62515296/jane-alison-essay/ Jane Alison, "How Chickens Helped Me Rethink Infertility," in ''Oprah Daily''] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut7epZxdRok Thomas Sleeper, composer; Jane Alison, libretto, "The Sisters Antipodes," mini-opera] * [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?app=desktop&list=PL8F41AE5949410DBB Thomas Sleeper, composer; Jane Alison, lyrics; John Duyker, tenor, "Xenia," song cycle]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alison, Jane}} Category:21st-century Australian novelists Category:Living people Category:Princeton University alumni Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Category:21st-century Australian women novelists Category:Australian women memoirists Category:1961 births Category:21st-century Australian memoirists