Nancy Rawles

Nancy Rawles is an American playwright, novelist, and teacher. She is a 2006 recipient of the Alex Award.

Early life and education

Rawles grew up in Los Angeles.

Rawles graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in journalism. She studied playwriting in Chicago with Linda Walsh Jenkins and Steven Carter. She later studied with C. Bernard Jackson of the Inner City Cultural Center in Los Angeles, and with Valerie Curtis Newton of The Hansberry Project.

Career

Rawles has written three novels. Her third novel, My Jim, published in 2005, tells the story of Sadie Watson, said to be the wife of the character known as "Nigger Jim", the escaped slave who travels down the Mississippi River with Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain's famous novel of that name.

Rawles is a contributor to the Female Sexual Ethics Project at Brandeis University under the direction of Bernadette Brooten, Kraft-Hiatt Professor of Christian Studies.

Awards

In 2005, Booklist included My Jim on their list of year's the best "Adult Books for Young Adults".

In 2007, Rawles received an Artist Trust Fellowship in Fiction.

Awards for Rawles's writing

Year	Work	Award	Result	Ref.
2009	My Jim	Seattle Reads
1998	Love Like Gumbo	American Book Award	Winner
1998		Washington State Governor's Writers Award
2000		Astraea Foundation, Claire of the Moon Award for Fiction
2006	My Jim	Alex Awards	Winner
2006	My Jim	Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Fiction	Winner

Works

Novels

• Love Like Gumbo. Fjord Press. 1997. ISBN 978-0-940242-75-3.
• Crawfish Dreams. Random House, Inc. 2003. ISBN 978-0-385-50418-8.
• My Jim. Crown Publishers. 2005. ISBN 978-1-4000-5400-8.

Criticism

• Rawles, Nancy (July 10, 2005). "Chains of Madness". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 19, 2010.

External links

• "Nancy Rawles Revisits a Twain Character for 'My Jim'", NPR, Alan Cheuse, February 22, 2005
• Barbara Lloyd McMichael (May 3, 2009). ""Seattle Reads:" Huck Finn's adventure, Jim's ordeal". The Seattle Times.
• Frances Dinger (May 27, 2009). "Author Nancy Rawles retells Twain classic in 'My Jim'". The Seattle University Spectator. Archived from the original on October 1, 2009.
• Sarah Anne Johnson, ed. (2006). "I Try to Write Rhythmically". The Very Telling: Conversations with American Writers. UPNE. p. 169. ISBN 978-1-58465-594-7.
• Erin Texeira (April 4, 2005). "'My Jim' adds slave's insight to Huck's story". The Los Angeles Times.
• "The Importance of Place: Lisa Albers talks with prominent local authors about their writing", Seattle Woman