Betty Jean Craige, Scholar and Writer |
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| Southern Writers Interview with Susan Reichert |
NEWS
Ruminations on a Parrot Named Cosmo, a sequel of sorts to Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot (2010), was released on April 15, 2021, by Sherman Asher Publishing.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I grew up in El Paso, went to Pomona College for a B.A. in Spanish Literature and to the University of Washington for an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, spent a formative year in Madrid, and then came to Athens, Georgia, to join the faculty of Comparative Literature at the University of Georgia in 1973. All that was a long time ago. After thirty-eight happy years at the University of Georgia, I retired in 2011 as University Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts. I live in Athens, Georgia, with an African Grey parrot named Cosmo.
ACADEMIC RESUME
Betty Jean Craige
bjcraige@uga.edu
Betty Jean Craige is Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and Director Emerita of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia. She lives in Athens, Georgia.
Betty Jean received her B.A. in Spanish Literature from Pomona College (1968) and her M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1974) in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. She taught at the University of Georgia from 1973 to 2011.
She has published books in the fields of Spanish poetry, modern literature, history of ideas, politics, ecology, and art. In the early 1980s, Betty Jean became interested in what she considers a fundamental transformation of the West’s conceptual and political order. Reconnection: Dualism to Holism in Literary Study (1988), which won the Frederic W. Ness Book Award from the Association of American Colleges, and Laying the Ladder Down: The Emergence of Cultural Holism (1992), which won the Georgia Author of the Year Award, explore the development in the twentieth century of a holistic understanding of culture and nature. American Patriotism in a Global Society (1996) examines the relationship of “political holism” to globalization. Her biography Eugene Odum: Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmentalist (2001, 2002) is the fourth book in this set of books about holism.
After completing the Odum biography, Betty Jean published several art books on the Catalan (Spanish) artist Alvar Suñol, including Alvar: Thirty Years of Lithography (2001); and Alvar: In Color and Poetry (2005), a trilingual volume (English, Spanish, and Catalan) that includes her introduction and her translation into English of seven poems by Marjorie Agosín. She guest-curated a show of Alvar’s lithographs at the Georgia Museum of Art (2001). She produced a 42-minute documentary, with Alan Stecker, titled Alvar Suñol: His Vision and His Art, which won First Place in Short Documentary at the Indie Gathering film festival (2006) and was shown on Georgia Public Television (2007, 2008). In 2007, she edited the catalogue Alvar: The Albany Museum of Art and curated the exhibition at the Albany Museum of Art titled Alvar: Contemporary Renaissance.
Her work as a Hispanist includes a study of Federico García Lorca’s surrealist poetry, titled Lorca’s Poet in New York (1977), and five book-length translations, Selected Poems of Antonio Machado (1978), The Poetry of Gabriel Celaya (1984), Manuel Mantero: New Songs for the Ruins of Spain (1986), Poems for Josefina, by Marjorie Agosín (2004), and Mother, Speak to Us of War / Madre, háblanos de la guerra, by Marjorie Agosín (2006).
In 2010, Betty Jean published in both hardback and audiobook Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot, which won Silver in the Foreword Book of the Year competition. For two years—2012 and 2013—she published a weekly Sunday column in the Athens Banner-Herald titled “Cosmo Talks.” Ruminations on a Parrot Named Cosmo will appear in late 2020.
In retirement she turned her attention to writing fiction: a "Witherston Murder Mystery" series, including Downstream (2014), Fairfield's Auction (2016) which won First Place in Mystery and Mayhem in the Chanticleer Book Awards, Dam Witherston (2017) which was named Winner of 2018 New York City Big Book Award in Mystery, Distinguished Favorite in Mystery in 2018 Independent Press Awards, and Honorable Mention in Mystery in the 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards, and Saxxons in Witherston (2019), which received Honorable Mention in Mystery in the 2019 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards, Honorable Mention in the 2019 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards in Mystery, and Honorable Mention in 2019/2020 Reader Views Literary Awards in Mystery/Thriller ; and the thriller Aldo (2018) which won Distinguished Favorite of 2018 New York City Big Book Award in Mystery and Second Place in the 2018 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards in both Mystery and Science Fiction.
Smatter's Woods, the fifth Witherston mystery, will appear in 2021.
Betty Jean's essays have appeared in PMLA, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Athens Banner Herald.
Betty Jean has received the University of Georgia Alumni Society Faculty Service Award (1994), the Albert Christ-Janer Award for Creativity in Research (2003), the Blue Key Service Award (2010), and the Women's Studies Faculty Award (2011). She has also received awards for teaching, including the Honoratus Medal from the Honors Program. The title “University Professor” was granted to her in 1995 as “highest recognition for significant impact on The University of Georgia.” On May 13, 2004, she received the Governor’s Award in the Humanities.
On December 20, 2003, Betty Jean delivered the graduate and professional schools’ commencement address at the University of Georgia. On January 27, 2012, she gave the University’s Founders Day Lecture. On September 17, 2013, she accepted the Jeannette Rankin Fund Founders' Award.
In December of 2020 she received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
Betty Jean was Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Delta Prize for Global Understanding.
She served as President of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI@UGA) in 2015-2016.
See: http://bettyjeancraige.org/
BOOK AWARDS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fiction
Saxxons in Witherston: A Witherston Murder Mystery. Black Opal Books, 2019
Aldo. Black Opal Books, 2018
Dam Witherston: A Witherston Murder Mystery. Black Opal Books, 2017
Fairfield’s Auction: A Witherston Murder Mystery. Black Opal Books, 2016
Downstream: A Witherston Murder Mystery. Black Opal Books, 2014
Non-Fiction
Ruminations on a Parrot Named Cosmo. Sherman Asher Publishing, 2021
Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot. Sherman Asher Publishing, 2010
Scholarly Books
Eugene Odum: Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmentalist. University of Georgia Press, 2001, 2002
American Patriotism in a Global Society. State University of New York Press, 1996
Laying the Ladder Down: The Emergence of Cultural Holism. University of Massachusetts Press, 1992
Reconnection: Dualism to Holism in Literary Study. University of Georgia Press, 1988
Literary Relativity. Bucknell University Press, 1982
Lorca's Poet in New York: The Fall into Consciousness. University Press of Kentucky, 1977
Major Translations
Marjorie Agosín, Mother, Speak to Us of War / Madre, háblanos de la guerra
Translated and edited by Betty Jean Craige. Sherman Asher Publishing, 2006
Marjorie Agosín, Poems for Josefina (Translated by Betty Jean Craige). Sherman Asher Publishing, 2004
Manuel Mantero: New Songs for the Ruins of Spain (Introduction and Translation). Bucknell University Press, 1986
With Carmen Chaves McClendon. The Island of the Dead (Translation of Lya Luft's O Quarto Fechado).
The University of Georgia Press, 1986
The Poetry of Gabriel Celaya (Introduction and Translation. Bucknell University Press, 1984
Selected Poems of Antonio Machado (Introduction and Translation). Louisiana State University Press, 1978
Edited Volumes
With Marjorie Agosín and Alvar Suñol, Alvar: In Color and Poetry, 2005. Barcelona, Spain: Gesmax, SL, 2005
With Marjorie Agosín, To Mend the World: Women Reflect on 9/11. White Pine Press, 2002
Alvar: Thirty Years of Lithography. Decorative Expressions, 2001
Literature, Language, and Politics. University of Georgia Press, 1988
Relativism in the Arts. University of Georgia Press, 1983
Documentary
Betty Jean Craige, Executive Producer, Producer, Writer, Translator, with Alan Stecker. Alvar Suñol: His Vision and His Art
(42-minute documentary). Atlanta: ASV, Inc., 2006.
Exhibitions
Alvar Suñol: Contemporary Renaissance. Albany Museum of Art: September 11 - December 1, 2007
The Lithographs of Alvar. Guest Curator. Georgia Museum of Art: September 11 - October 21, 2001
Exhibition Catalogues
Alvar Suñol: Contemporary Renaissance. Editor. Albany Museum of Art, 2007
Alvar Suñol’s PLENITUD at the University of Georgia. Athens: Georgia Center for Continuing Education, 2007
Lithographs by Alvar. Georgia Museum of Art: September 11 - October 21, 2001
Ruminations on a Parrot Named Cosmo, a sequel of sorts to Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot (2010), was released on April 15, 2021, by Sherman Asher Publishing.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I grew up in El Paso, went to Pomona College for a B.A. in Spanish Literature and to the University of Washington for an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, spent a formative year in Madrid, and then came to Athens, Georgia, to join the faculty of Comparative Literature at the University of Georgia in 1973. All that was a long time ago. After thirty-eight happy years at the University of Georgia, I retired in 2011 as University Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts. I live in Athens, Georgia, with an African Grey parrot named Cosmo.
ACADEMIC RESUME
Betty Jean Craige
bjcraige@uga.edu
Betty Jean Craige is Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and Director Emerita of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia. She lives in Athens, Georgia.
Betty Jean received her B.A. in Spanish Literature from Pomona College (1968) and her M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1974) in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. She taught at the University of Georgia from 1973 to 2011.
She has published books in the fields of Spanish poetry, modern literature, history of ideas, politics, ecology, and art. In the early 1980s, Betty Jean became interested in what she considers a fundamental transformation of the West’s conceptual and political order. Reconnection: Dualism to Holism in Literary Study (1988), which won the Frederic W. Ness Book Award from the Association of American Colleges, and Laying the Ladder Down: The Emergence of Cultural Holism (1992), which won the Georgia Author of the Year Award, explore the development in the twentieth century of a holistic understanding of culture and nature. American Patriotism in a Global Society (1996) examines the relationship of “political holism” to globalization. Her biography Eugene Odum: Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmentalist (2001, 2002) is the fourth book in this set of books about holism.
After completing the Odum biography, Betty Jean published several art books on the Catalan (Spanish) artist Alvar Suñol, including Alvar: Thirty Years of Lithography (2001); and Alvar: In Color and Poetry (2005), a trilingual volume (English, Spanish, and Catalan) that includes her introduction and her translation into English of seven poems by Marjorie Agosín. She guest-curated a show of Alvar’s lithographs at the Georgia Museum of Art (2001). She produced a 42-minute documentary, with Alan Stecker, titled Alvar Suñol: His Vision and His Art, which won First Place in Short Documentary at the Indie Gathering film festival (2006) and was shown on Georgia Public Television (2007, 2008). In 2007, she edited the catalogue Alvar: The Albany Museum of Art and curated the exhibition at the Albany Museum of Art titled Alvar: Contemporary Renaissance.
Her work as a Hispanist includes a study of Federico García Lorca’s surrealist poetry, titled Lorca’s Poet in New York (1977), and five book-length translations, Selected Poems of Antonio Machado (1978), The Poetry of Gabriel Celaya (1984), Manuel Mantero: New Songs for the Ruins of Spain (1986), Poems for Josefina, by Marjorie Agosín (2004), and Mother, Speak to Us of War / Madre, háblanos de la guerra, by Marjorie Agosín (2006).
In 2010, Betty Jean published in both hardback and audiobook Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot, which won Silver in the Foreword Book of the Year competition. For two years—2012 and 2013—she published a weekly Sunday column in the Athens Banner-Herald titled “Cosmo Talks.” Ruminations on a Parrot Named Cosmo will appear in late 2020.
In retirement she turned her attention to writing fiction: a "Witherston Murder Mystery" series, including Downstream (2014), Fairfield's Auction (2016) which won First Place in Mystery and Mayhem in the Chanticleer Book Awards, Dam Witherston (2017) which was named Winner of 2018 New York City Big Book Award in Mystery, Distinguished Favorite in Mystery in 2018 Independent Press Awards, and Honorable Mention in Mystery in the 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards, and Saxxons in Witherston (2019), which received Honorable Mention in Mystery in the 2019 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards, Honorable Mention in the 2019 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards in Mystery, and Honorable Mention in 2019/2020 Reader Views Literary Awards in Mystery/Thriller ; and the thriller Aldo (2018) which won Distinguished Favorite of 2018 New York City Big Book Award in Mystery and Second Place in the 2018 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards in both Mystery and Science Fiction.
Smatter's Woods, the fifth Witherston mystery, will appear in 2021.
Betty Jean's essays have appeared in PMLA, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Athens Banner Herald.
Betty Jean has received the University of Georgia Alumni Society Faculty Service Award (1994), the Albert Christ-Janer Award for Creativity in Research (2003), the Blue Key Service Award (2010), and the Women's Studies Faculty Award (2011). She has also received awards for teaching, including the Honoratus Medal from the Honors Program. The title “University Professor” was granted to her in 1995 as “highest recognition for significant impact on The University of Georgia.” On May 13, 2004, she received the Governor’s Award in the Humanities.
On December 20, 2003, Betty Jean delivered the graduate and professional schools’ commencement address at the University of Georgia. On January 27, 2012, she gave the University’s Founders Day Lecture. On September 17, 2013, she accepted the Jeannette Rankin Fund Founders' Award.
In December of 2020 she received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
Betty Jean was Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Delta Prize for Global Understanding.
She served as President of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI@UGA) in 2015-2016.
See: http://bettyjeancraige.org/
BOOK AWARDS
- Reconnection: Dualism to Holism in Literary Study won the 1988 Frederic W. Ness Award.
- Laying the Ladder Down: The Emergence of Cultural Holism won 1992 Georgia Author of the Year Award.
- Alvar: His Vision and His Art won First Place in Short Documentary in the 2006 Indie Gathering independent film festival.
- Conversations with Cosmo won ForeWord Reviews 2010 Silver Book of the Year in Pets category.
- Downstream received a 5-Star Review from Reader's Favorite.
- Fairfield’s Auction won First Place in Mystery and Mayhem category of 2018 Chanticleer Book Awards.
- Dam Witherston won Honorable Mention in the 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards in Mysteries, Distinguished Favorite in 2018 Independent Press Awards in Mystery, Winner in the 2018 New York City Big Book Awards in Mystery, and a 5-Star Review from Readers' Favorite.
- Aldo won Distinguished Favorite in the 2018 New York City Big Book Awards in Mystery, Second Place in the Royal Dragonfly Book Awards in both Mystery and Science Fiction, Distinguished Favorite in the 2019 Independent Press Awards in Crime Fiction and a 5-Star Review from Readers' Favorite.
- Saxxons in Witherston won a 2019-2020 Honorable Mention in the 2019 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards in Mystery, Honorable Mention in 2019/2020 Reader Views Literary Awards in Mystery/Thriller, Distinguished Favorite in Independent Press Award, Distinguished Favorite in Mystery in the 2020 NYC Big Book Awards, and a 5-Star Review from Readers' Favorite.
- Ruminations on a Parrot Named Cosmo won first place in the 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in Animals/Pets category, and a 5-Star Review from Readers' Favorite.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fiction
Saxxons in Witherston: A Witherston Murder Mystery. Black Opal Books, 2019
Aldo. Black Opal Books, 2018
Dam Witherston: A Witherston Murder Mystery. Black Opal Books, 2017
Fairfield’s Auction: A Witherston Murder Mystery. Black Opal Books, 2016
Downstream: A Witherston Murder Mystery. Black Opal Books, 2014
Non-Fiction
Ruminations on a Parrot Named Cosmo. Sherman Asher Publishing, 2021
Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot. Sherman Asher Publishing, 2010
Scholarly Books
Eugene Odum: Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmentalist. University of Georgia Press, 2001, 2002
American Patriotism in a Global Society. State University of New York Press, 1996
Laying the Ladder Down: The Emergence of Cultural Holism. University of Massachusetts Press, 1992
Reconnection: Dualism to Holism in Literary Study. University of Georgia Press, 1988
Literary Relativity. Bucknell University Press, 1982
Lorca's Poet in New York: The Fall into Consciousness. University Press of Kentucky, 1977
Major Translations
Marjorie Agosín, Mother, Speak to Us of War / Madre, háblanos de la guerra
Translated and edited by Betty Jean Craige. Sherman Asher Publishing, 2006
Marjorie Agosín, Poems for Josefina (Translated by Betty Jean Craige). Sherman Asher Publishing, 2004
Manuel Mantero: New Songs for the Ruins of Spain (Introduction and Translation). Bucknell University Press, 1986
With Carmen Chaves McClendon. The Island of the Dead (Translation of Lya Luft's O Quarto Fechado).
The University of Georgia Press, 1986
The Poetry of Gabriel Celaya (Introduction and Translation. Bucknell University Press, 1984
Selected Poems of Antonio Machado (Introduction and Translation). Louisiana State University Press, 1978
Edited Volumes
With Marjorie Agosín and Alvar Suñol, Alvar: In Color and Poetry, 2005. Barcelona, Spain: Gesmax, SL, 2005
With Marjorie Agosín, To Mend the World: Women Reflect on 9/11. White Pine Press, 2002
Alvar: Thirty Years of Lithography. Decorative Expressions, 2001
Literature, Language, and Politics. University of Georgia Press, 1988
Relativism in the Arts. University of Georgia Press, 1983
Documentary
Betty Jean Craige, Executive Producer, Producer, Writer, Translator, with Alan Stecker. Alvar Suñol: His Vision and His Art
(42-minute documentary). Atlanta: ASV, Inc., 2006.
Exhibitions
Alvar Suñol: Contemporary Renaissance. Albany Museum of Art: September 11 - December 1, 2007
The Lithographs of Alvar. Guest Curator. Georgia Museum of Art: September 11 - October 21, 2001
Exhibition Catalogues
Alvar Suñol: Contemporary Renaissance. Editor. Albany Museum of Art, 2007
Alvar Suñol’s PLENITUD at the University of Georgia. Athens: Georgia Center for Continuing Education, 2007
Lithographs by Alvar. Georgia Museum of Art: September 11 - October 21, 2001
