Biography of Annie Prolux - 993 Words

Annie Prolux is an author of eight books. She was born in Norwich, Connecticut on August 22, 1935. She is the oldest of fives sisters. She graduated high school in Portland, Maine and attended Colby College. She then attended the University of Vermont and received her bachelor’s degree in History. In 1973 she attended Sir George Williams University of Montreal, where she graduated with a master’s degree in History. In 1983 and 1987 Proulx landed two stories in The Best American Short Stories. She published her first fictional book called Heart Songs and Other Stories, in 1988, followed by a novel, Postcards, in 1992. She won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for the comic novel, The Shipping News. In 1998 Proulx won two O. Henry prize stories for Brokeback Mountain and The Mud Below. Brokeback Mountain later became an academy award winning film. In Prolux’s short story 55 Miles to the Gas Pump, a drunken rancher named Mr. Croom hides a secret from his wife. He gets drunk and falls off a cliff. After his death Mrs. Croom’s curiosity sets in. She cuts a hole in the roof and reveals twelve dead women. Some of the women she recognized from missing posters. The women were badly beaten, some covered in paint, and one covered in newspapers. Mr. Croom had the attic locked for twelve years. Proulx uses the plot to keep the reader interested by giving descriptions of the bodies. She starts the story off with Mr. Croom death. It keeps the reader interested to find out what