This Goodly Land

Sena Jeter Naslund (June 28, 1942–present)

Other Names Used

• Sena Kathryn Jeter: birth name

Alabama Connections

• Birmingham, Jefferson County: birthplace, childhood residence, education
• Helicon, Crenshaw County: home of father's family, setting for portion of Four Spirits
• Montevallo, Shelby County: Vacca Professor at Montevallo University, 2003

Selected Works

• Naslund, Sena Jeter. Ice Skating at the North Pole: Stories. Bristol, R.I.: Ampersand Press, 1989.
• Naslund, Sena Jeter. The Animal Way to Love: A Novel. Bristol, R.I.: Ampersand Press, 1993.
• Naslund, Sena Jeter. Sherlock in Love: A Novel. Boston: David R. Godine, 1993.
• Naslund, Sena Jeter. The Disobedience of Water: Stories and Novellas. Boston: D. R. Godine, 1999.
• Naslund, Sena Jeter. Ahab's Wife, or, The Star-Gazer: A Novel. New York: William Morrow, 1999.
• Naslund, Sena Jeter. Four Spirits: A Novel. New York: Morrow, 2003.
• Naslund, Sena Jeter. Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette. New York: William Morrow, 2006.

Literary Awards

• Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer, 2001, Alabama Writers' Forum and Alabama Writers Symposium
• Alabama Author Award, Alabama Library Association, 2001, for Ahab's Wife, or, The Star-Gazer: A Novel
• Kentucky Poet Laureate, appointed by the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 2005-2006

Biographical Information

Sena Jeter Naslund was born and raised in Birmingham, Ala. She suffered from insomnia as a child and began telling herself stories as she lay in bed. While Naslund was in high school, she worked for the school newspaper. She was also a cellist and spent her summers at music camp. Naslund was offered a music scholarship to the University of Alabama but turned it down to attend Birmingham-Southern College. While she was at Birmingham-Southern, she also attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College in Vermont. Naslund graduated in 1964 with a BA degree in English and creative writing and then attended the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. After earning MA and PhD degrees from the University of Iowa, she taught briefly at the University of Montana before accepting a faculty position at the University of Louisville in 1972. Naslund directed the University’s creative writing program for twelve years.

Naslund published her first short stories in literary journals. A collection of stories, Ice Skating at the North Pole, was published in 1989. In 1993, she published two novels and in 1999 she published another collection of short stories and her most famous novel, Ahab’s Wife, or, The Star-Gazer. Four Spirits, a novel set in Alabama during the civil rights era, was published in 2003. Naslund founded a literary journal, the Louisville Review, in 1976. When its funding was cut in the early 1990s, she instituted a writing competition, using the entry fees to support the journal. The Louisville Review was picked up by Spaulding University in 1998, and Naslund is still one of its editors. In 1996, Naslund founded Fleur-de-Lis Press (now located at Spaulding University) to publish the work of young writers. Naslund is the program director for the MFA in Writing program at Spaulding University as well as a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Louisville.

Interests and Themes

Sena Jeter Naslund writes stories about strong independent women and their survival in difficult, painful situations. Several of her books are based on alternative views of fictional characters and historical figures.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Articles

• Haynsworth, Leslie. "Sena Jeter Naslund: An Epic of Her Own". Publishers Weekly 27 Sept. 1999: 65-66.
• Johnson, Sarah Anne. "Women of Substance". The Writer Nov. 2002: 26-31.

Reference Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Entries

• Naslund, Sena Jeter. "Thunderhoof and the Mantel Clock"; The Remembered Gate: Memoirs by Alabama Authors. Ed. Jay Lamar and Jeanie Thompson. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, . 204-219.

Reference Web Sites

• Sena Jeter Naslund. HarperCollins. http://www.senajeternaslund.com.
• Dixon, Robert. "Sena Jeter Naslund". The Encyclopedia of Alabama. 2009. Alabama Humanities Foundation and Auburn University. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2009.

Photo by Chris McNair; courtesy of William Morrow/HarperCollins.

Last updated on Jan 26, 2009.