A Novel Approach to Life

by Coleen Grissom

Overview

As an administrator and teacher at San Antonio's Trinity University for five decades, Coleen Grissom saw the rise of feminism, the sexual revolution, and the tragic deaths of students, friends, and family. This varied collection assembles the best of her speeches probing these and other timely issues, from drug use and freedom of speech to AIDS and racism. More than the sum of its parts, this book, filigreed with pithy literary insights, offers an astute chronicle of its times that gives readers good reasons to embrace literature and life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595341181
Publisher:	Trinity University Press
Publication date:	08/31/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	256
File size:	568 KB

About the Author

Coleen Grissom is a professor of English at Trinity University and the author of The World According to Coleen and A Novel Approach to Life. A faculty member at Trinity for more than fifty years, she has received “honorary alumna” status and a scholarship in her honor. As dean of students and later vice president for student affairs, she has mentored, counseled, and influenced the lives of thousands of students. Though still teaching full time at Trinity and leading discussions of contemporary fiction in two literary excursions for “more mature” students, she resides in the Texas Hill Country, where her toy poodles, a rescued schnauzer stray, and her indoor cats enslave her.
Coleen Grissom has made grown men and women to weep. Not that she’s mean—though she also has been known to be somewhat acerbic on occasion. No, Dr. Grissom brings people to tears because a) she has insights about writing that go deeply to those human places where weeping is inescapable, and b) she is hellaciously funny while taking us there. A professor of English at Trinity University, she has served that institution since 1958 in administrative and teaching roles. As a faculty member for more than 45 years, she’s received “honorary alumna status” as well as a scholarship named in her honor. A recently retired member of the board of Gemini Ink, she continues to support that organization by conducting public interviews with visiting writers—most recently Annie Proulx, Grace Paley, and Margaret Atwood. In addition to reviewing books for the San Antonio Express-News, Grissom is regularly featured on KAHL 1310's "The Nightstand," a weekly radio program about books.

Editorial Reviews

Coleen Grissom is a superb example of Dear Reader—the intelligent, passionate, fully engaged, gets-all-the-jokes audience. And she’s not exactly shy about sharing her enthusiasms, so she’s also a brave advocate. If there’s ever a last-stand fort of reading and writing to be defended, Coleen Grissom will be right up there on the battlements. Readers like her raise the bar for writers.”— Margaret Atwood

“Coleen Grissom is an indelible original, a straight-talkin’ virtuoso of radiant and glittering mind, as well as one of the funniest people alive. Anyone who gets to hear her speak will never forget it; the rest of the world will seem slightly duller by comparison. Or, you will feel recharged to discover more about the rest of the world—its literature and films and wisdom, its small towns, its animals—more about everything interesting in general. Reading Grissom’s passionate and brilliant speeches may be nearly as good as hearing them. At least we will have them in hand to return to whenever we need some high-voltage uplift.”— Naomi Shihab Nye

From the Publisher