Sara Paretsky

Sara Paretsky has always been a writer. She grew up in eastern Kansas and attended a two-room country school where she loved to write and play baseball. At the age of eleven her very first story (about a group of children who survive a tornado) was published in American Girl Magazine. She attended the University of Kansas and received her degree in political science. Ms. Paretsky fell in love with Chicago during a summer in which she came to the city to do community service. Upon completion of her degree, Ms. Paretsky moved to Chicago and made the city her permanent home.

In 1977, Ms. Paretsky earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago. Unable to secure a job as an academic historian, she returned to the university for her MBA. While in school she held a variety of jobs including bottle washing for the science lab and managing conferences on employment problems. After receiving her degrees, she became marketing manager for CNA Insurance of Chicago. She claims that her ten years in the financial world offered her invaluable information in writing about the white-collar crimes that V.I. investigates.

At the age of thirty, Ms. Paretsky decided to write a detective novel: one of her favorite types of fiction. (She also loves to read poetry and nineteenth century British authors.) However, she was dissatisfied with the traditional portrayal of women as evil or weak within this genre and wanted a heroine who was intelligent, likable and tough…ala Victoria (V.I.) Warshawski!

Indemnity Only (1982), Deadlock (1984), and Killing Orders (1985) were written in the evening while the author worked full time during the day. During those years her life was unbelievably hectic and full as she also tutored, sang in a choir and managed a home for her husband and three young stepsons.

When asked if she and V.I. were alike, Ms. Paretsky commented that both have the same sharp tongue, love to sing (although the author is a soprano and V.I. is an alto), enjoy good food and good Scotch. Both live in Chicago and live and die with the Cubs. But V.I. is tougher, more resourceful and less a reader and daydreamer than I am claims the author. Ms. Paretsky says she is also luckier than her heroine because she has been married to a perfect and supportive partner for many years and is also a proud grandmother.

Ms. Paretsky has aged her heroine. V.I. is now in her forties and has been involved in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements. Her casework has involved true-life situations. The author states that her present dilemma is how to make the character of V.I. older, yet remain a competent detective.

Awards

• Honorary Doctor of Letters, Columbia College, Chicago, 1999
• Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College Oxford, 1997
• Mark Twain Award for Distinguished Contribution to Midwest Literature, 1996
• Honorary Doctor of Letters, MacMurray College, Illinois, 1993
• Marlowe Award from German Crime Writers for Guardian Angel, 1993
• Silver Dagger Award from the British Crime Writers Association for Blood Shot, 1988, published in England as Toxic Shock
• University of Kansas Hall of Fame, 1988
• Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year, 1987

V.I. Warshawski Series:

* Title is available in audiocassette.

Other works:

A Woman's Eye (Detective and mystery stories of American women authors, edited by Sara Paretsky) 813.0872099287 WOM 1991

Women on the Case (Detective and mystery stories of American women authors, edited by Sara Paretsky) 813.0872 WOM 1996

Ghost Country 1998