Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: South Pole Station
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1977
WEBSITE: https://www.ashleyshelby.com/
CITY:
STATE: MN
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2003019175
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2003019175
HEADING: Shelby, Ashley, 1977-
000 00737cz a2200145n 450
001 6108415
005 20170411091918.0
008 031120n| azannaabn |n aaa
010 __ |a n 2003019175
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC |d DLC
053 _0 |a PS3619.H45228
100 1_ |a Shelby, Ashley, |d 1977-
670 __ |a Shelby, Ashley. Red River rising, c2003: |b ECIP (Ashley Shelby) data sheet (b. 1977)
670 __ |a South Pole Station, 2017: |b CIP t.p. (Ashley Shelby) data view (“ASHLEY SHELBY is a former editor at Penguin, a prize-winning writer and journalist, and a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program. The short story that became the basis for South Pole Station is a winner of the Third Coast Fiction Prize; this is her first novel”)
953 __ |a jb10
PERSONAL
Born 1977.
EDUCATION:Indiana University, B.A.; Columbia University, M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, editor, short-story writer, educator, and journalist. Former editor at Penguin. Gotham Writers Workshop, writing instructor.
AWARDS:Third Coast Fiction Prize, for short story that was the basis for South Pole Station.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including the Los Angeles Review, Nation, Post Road, Seattle Review, Sonora Review, Southeast Review, and Third Coast.
SIDELIGHTS
Ashley Shelby is a writer, journalist, editor, and educator. She is a former editor for Penguin, where she acquired and edited narrative nonfiction and memoir, noted a writer on the Gotham Writers Workshop Website. She is an instructor at the Gotham Writers Workshop, Shelby holds a B.A. from Indiana University and an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University.
Red River Rising
Shelby’s first book, Red River Rising: The Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of an American City, was a narrative nonfiction account of the catastrophic 1997 flood of the Red River and the devastation it caused to Grand Forks, North Dakota. The flood occurred on April 19, 1997, and was the result of a series of blizzards that occurred during the winter of 1996-97 and the resulting runoff from melting in April. The flood was not predicted by any of the usually reliable sources, particularly the National Weather Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, nor could these agencies accurately determine when or at what level the river would crest. In total, some 50,000 families were displaced from their homes because of the flooding, and a major portion of Grand Forks’s downtown was damaged by flooding and subsequent fires.
In the wake of the flood, the National Weather Service was harshly criticized for not being able to predict the disaster, though Shelby points out that such blame was most likely unfounded since the NWS had actually predicted major flooding of the river. Library Journal contributor Stephen L. Hupp called Red River Rising a “readable, thoughtful, and eye-opening account of a possibly unpreventable natural disaster” and its aftermath.
South Pole Station
In her first novel, South Pole Station, which a Kirkus Reviews contributor called “smart and inventive,” Shelby writes about the troubles, triumphs, and relationships of a group of researchers, scientists, and artists who are assigned for a year to a remote research station at the South Pole. She begins the book with a series of psychological assessment questions that are used to determine if someone has the right mental state to live for an extended period in the inhospitable conditions of the South Pole. She then introduces her characters, not only the expected complement of scientific personnel and their support staff but also a group of artists, writers, and dancers who have been included as part of a National Science Foundation program encouraging creative work based on a polar adventure.
Main character Cooper Gosling is a painter who is part of the group of creatives qualified to join the mission. She is talented, but so far unsuccessful with her work. She is haunted by a family tragedy and is seeking escape, like many of her colleagues, in the frozen southern world. She derives comfort from the closeness of the team at the polar station, and finds herself attracted to Sal, a physicist. The arrival at the base of Dr. Frank Pavano throws the entire team into turmoil. Pavano is a climate change denier whose work and opinions are at odds with the scientists at the base. The mission is further jeopardized when Cooper helps Pavano with an unauthorized experiment and is injured in the process.
“This is a fascinating novel, loaded with interesting history of Antarctic exploration, current scientific operations, and the living and working condition” in a harsh and unforgiving environment where the sun shines only six months out of the year, noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Shelby “writes well about science and the peculiar, pressurized human ecosystem at the bottom of the world,” observed the writer in Kirkus Reviews. The author “eschews easy choices and treats interpersonal relations, grief, science, art, and political controversy with the same deft, humorous hand,” remarked Alene Moroni in a Booklist review. BookPage writer Chika Gujarathi concluded: “Shelby’s exploration of the human spirit continuously digs deeper, ever in search of answers to all of life’s important questions—scientific and otherwise.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June, 2017, Alene Moroni, review of South Pole Station, p. 55.
BookPage, July, 2017, Chika Gujarathi, review of South Pole Station, p. 22.
Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2017, review of South Pole Station.
Library Journal, April 15, 2004, Stephen L. Hupp, reviwe of Red River Rising: The Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of an American City, p. 101.
Publishers Weekly, May 1, 2017, review of South Pole Station, p. 34.
ONLINE
Gotham Writers Workshop Website, https://www.writingclasses.com/ (February 19, 2018), biography of Ashley Shelby.
Print Marked Items
Shelby, Ashley: SOUTH POLE STATION
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Shelby, Ashley SOUTH POLE STATION Picador (Adult Fiction) $26.00 7, 4 ISBN: 978-1-250-11282-8
In the messy human petri dish at the South Pole, a comic novel brews.Shelby begins her smart and inventive
first novel with 11 italicized questions plucked from a psychiatric evaluation: "Are you often sad? Do you
have digestion problems due to stress? Do you have problems with authority?..."Any American headed to
Antarctica in 2003 via the National Science Foundation must answer them. It's a nifty way to unpack
character and signal why her heroine, Cooper Gosling, has passed only provisionally. Cooper is 30, a
drinker and a fine arts painter from the upper Midwest, a smartass who holds that "hotdish had never
received its gastronomic due and the fake Minnesota accents in Fargo were the blackface of regional
phonology." Fetching and witty, Cooper becomes the station chief's favorite and irresistible to a tall and
handsome astrophysicist. Their attraction--one of the novel's key pleasures--is telegraphed within the first
few pages. Readers also learn early that Cooper is fleeing the sorrow of her twin's recent suicide; she carries
a pinch of his ashes in a travel-size Tylenol bottle. Thus, Shelby balances Eros with Thanatos in a story
composed of barbed dialogue, email, and official memos. A climate-change skeptic arrives to bedevil the
polar community, hatching a far-fetched political conspiracy. Clearly, the writer likes agita--politics mixed
with science fuels Red River Rising (2004), her nonfiction book about the catastrophic 1997 flood in Grand
Forks, North Dakota. She writes well about science and the peculiar, pressurized human ecosystem at the
bottom of the world. Bozer, a polar station construction chief, gets his own point-of-view chapter, and it lifts
him from caricature to one of the best aspects of the book. Hovering over all is Cooper's sort-of "spirit
animal," the British explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who wrote the Antarctica classic The Worst Journey in
the World. This new book would no doubt confound him but, in the end, bring him delight. Jokes lubricate a
moving and occasionally preposterous story of love and death in the Antarctic cold.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Shelby, Ashley: SOUTH POLE STATION." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495427561/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=50d9f6ef.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495427561
South Pole Station
Chika Gujarathi
BookPage.
(July 2017): p22.
COPYRIGHT 2017 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
By Ashley Shelby
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Picador $26, 368 pages
ISBN 9781250112828 eBook available
DEBUT FICTION
The South Pole, often talked about as that place melting quicker than the ice cubes in our summer drinks,
happens to be the location of Ashley Shelby's debut novel, South Pole Station. Filled with characters that
one would expect in a place like this--scientists and researchers--it also has an unexpected menagerie of
authors and artists, as well as an interpretive dancer and a climate skeptic who round out this spectacle at the
southernmost tip of our planet.
The story starts miles away in Minnesota, where 30-year-old struggling artist Cooper Gosling has been
offered a spot at the Amundsen-Scott research station. It's hard to deny the unique inspiration such a place
could evoke, but Cooper's reasons to be so far from civilization have more to do with the personal trauma of
her twin brother's recent passing.
At the station, Cooper meets other "Polies" with whom she automatically shares the camaraderie of being in
one of the strangest places on earth, although she still bears the weight of feeling like a lone castaway. But
it's hard to keep romance and friendships at bay, even in the most scientifically sterile place, and Cooper
slowly finds the comfort she's looking for. Throughout witty, often hilarious scenarios, Shelby expertly
weaves in the legitimate political and environmental concerns of climate change faced by the worldwide
scientific community today.
Shelby's exploration of the human spirit continuously digs deeper, ever in search of answers to all of life's
important questions--scientific and otherwise.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Gujarathi, Chika. "South Pole Station." BookPage, July 2017, p. 22. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497099082/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=caaf983c.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497099082
South Pole Station
Alene Moroni
Booklist.
113.19-20 (June 2017): p55+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
South Pole Station. By Ashley Shelby. July 2017.368p. Picador, $26 (9781250112828).
Cooper Gosling has passed the rigorous physical and psychological tests required to spend a year in
Antarctica in the National Science Foundation's Artists and Writers program. A talented painter who, at 30,
has not yet realized her potential, Cooper is recovering from a family tragedy and looking for escape. She
finds herself integrating with a community that includes scientists, artists, builders, and support staff with
wildly different personalities, each seeking or fleeing something. Drawn to Sal, a physicist intent on
disproving the Big Bang theory and assisting a climate change denier with his research, Cooper finds herself
at the center of an incident with long-range implications for the station and its inhabitants. Journalist
Shelby's first novel eschews easy choices and treats interpersonal relations, grief, science, art, and political
controversy with the same deft, humorous hand. Readers will find characters to love, suspect, and identify
with among Cooper's fellow Polies and won't forget them easily. A good match for readers whose interest in
Antarctica was sparked by Maria Semple's Whered You Go, Bernadette? (2014), those who enjoy stories
about quirky individuals and made families, and extreme armchair travelers.--Alene Moroni
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Moroni, Alene. "South Pole Station." Booklist, June 2017, p. 55+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A498582706/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c0053bed.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498582706
South Pole Station
Publishers Weekly.
264.18 (May 1, 2017): p34.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
South Pole Station
Ashley Shelby. Picador, $26 (368p) ISBN 9781-250-11282-8
Shelby's debut novel is a (literally) chilling story of Antarctic survival at South Pole Station, where
scientists, artists, and support personnel live, work, argue, and pout inside a geodesic dome in temps of 35
degrees below zero. Cooper Gosling, an unsuccessful artist, "your typical aimless thirty-year-old looking to
delay the inevitable slide into mediocrity," is accepted for a one-year assignment to South Pole Station as
part of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. She truly is adrift in her
career and personal life, but finds comfort and inclusion at South Pole Station, where personality disorders
and a fondness for alcohol are seemingly requirements. The station's isolation, close-quarters living, and
bitter cold do not inspire her; more interesting for Cooper are the people and relationships she observes--the
social tribes and ego posturing, especially when a hated scientist arrives. Dr. Frank Pavano is a climate
change denier, and his presence riles the other scientists. When Cooper helps Pavano with an unauthorized
experiment and is maimed in an accident, a blame-game investigation, a global warming scandal, and
congressional outrage and meddling with funding threaten the station's future. Cooper and her polar pals
stage a mutiny, resulting in a tense, ice-cold showdown with the feds, the media, a greedy defense
contractor, and an insidious energy company. This is a fascinating novel, loaded with interesting history of
Antarctic exploration, current scientific operations, and the living and working conditions of those folks
brave enough to endure six months of darkness and six months of daylight. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"South Pole Station." Publishers Weekly, 1 May 2017, p. 34. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491575261/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ba85da20.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491575261
Shelby, Ashley. Red River Rising: the
Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of an
American City
Stephen L. Hupp
Library Journal.
129.7 (Apr. 15, 2004): p101.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Shelby, Ashley. Red River Rising: The Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of an American City.
Borealis: Minnesota Historical Society. Apr. 2004. c.265p. maps. ISBN 0-87351-500-5. $24.95. HIST
On April 19, 1997, Grand Forks, ND, was devastated by flooding on the Red River: more than 50,000
people were forced from their homes, and a significant portion of the city's downtown was damaged by the
fiver and a major fire. Journalist and fiction writer Shelby has written a detailed account of the disaster and
its aftermath. The Red River was swollen to record levels by a series of blizzards during the winter of 1996-
97 and a rapid melt-off during April. Neither the National Weather Service (NWS) nor the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers could accurately predict the river's crest, leaving Grand Forks's citizens in prepared for the
floods. Afterward. the NWS was the focus of harsh and unfair criticism for failing to predict the flood's
severity when in fact it had predicted the possibility of major flooding on the Red River. Drawing on news
stories, government documents, and interviews with residents, Shelby presents a readable, thoughtful, and
eye-opening account of a possibly unpreventable natural disaster and how it brings out the best and worst in
people; for academic and public libraries.--Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ. Lib., Purkersburg
Hupp, Stephen L.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Hupp, Stephen L. "Shelby, Ashley. Red River Rising: the Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of an
American City." Library Journal, 15 Apr. 2004, p. 101. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A115901716/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=16a90ade.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A115901716