Agate Nesaule Explained

Agate Nesaule
Other Names:Agate Nesaule Krouse
Birth Date:January 23, 1938
Birth Place:Latvia
Death Date:June 29, 2022
Death Place:Madison, Wisconsin
Occupation:Writer, college professor
Notable Works:Woman in Amber (1995)
Awards:American Book Award (1996)

Agate Nesaule (January 23, 1938 – June 29, 2022) was a Latvian-born American writer and professor of English on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. Her 1995 memoir A Woman in Amber won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1996.[1]

Early life and education

Nesaule was born in Latvia, daughter of Peteris V. Nesaule and Valda Nesaule.[2] Her father was a Lutheran minister; her mother earned a Ph.D in her seventies.[3] As a little girl, Nesaule fled the wartime upheaval with her family, and spent time as a child prisoner in Germany during World War II. The family lived in a displaced persons camp, and moved to the United States in 1950, when she was 12 years old.[4]

Nesaule attended Shortridge High School,[5] and won a statewide Latin competition in Indiana; the prize was a four-year scholarship to Indiana University Bloomington.[6] [7] She earned a bachelor's and a master's degree at Indiana, and completed doctoral studies in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[8] Her dissertation was titled "The Feminism of Doris Lessing" (1972).

Career

Nesaule was a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater from 1963 to 1996. She and Ruth Schauer founded the school's women's studies program in 1972. Her memoir A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile (1995)[9] won the American Book Award in 1996.[10] She also published two novels, and academic articles.[11]

In 1998, Nesaule was an invited guest when President Bill Clinton signed the agreement required to allow Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia to join NATO.[12] In 2019, she wrote in an essay, "I have lived in the United States for 70 years. I am an American citizen in love with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I am immensely grateful for all that this country has given me, yet I feel I do not really belong here."[13]

Publications

Personal life

Nesaule married a fellow English professor, Harry Krouse. They had a son, Boris. They divorced. She died in Madison, Wisconsin in 2022, at the age of 84.

Notes and References

  1. News: Holt . Patricia . 1996-07-14 . Award Winners Reflect Diversity . 216, 225 . The San Francisco Examiner . 2023-01-12 . Newspapers.com.
  2. News: 1978-12-15 . Nesaule, Valda (death notice) . 64 . The Indianapolis Star . 2023-01-12 . Newspapers.com.
  3. News: 1996-09-21 . Rev. Peteris V. Nesaule, 88, founder, minister of Latvian Lutheran Church . 47 . The Indianapolis Star . 2023-01-12 . Newspapers.com.
  4. Book: Jirgens, Karl E. . https://books.google.com/books?id=6YZwiQT2uqkC&dq=Agate+Nesaule&pg=PA360 . Baltic Postcolonialism . 2006 . Rodopi . 978-90-420-1959-1 . Kelertas . Violeta . 360 . en . Labyrinths of Meaning in Aleksandrs Pelecis' Siberia Book and Agate Nesaul's Woman in Amber: A Postmodern/Postcolonial Reading.
  5. Shortridge High School, Annual (1956 yearbook): 129. via Ancestry
  6. Web site: Agate Nesaule Obituary (2022) - Madison, Wisconsin - Madison.com . 2023-01-12 . Legacy.com.
  7. News: 1956-09-16 . Isadore Feibleman Scholarship Students Enter Collegiate Life . 69 . The Indianapolis Star . 2023-01-12 . Newspapers.com.
  8. Web site: 2022-07-20 . In Memoriam: Agate Nesaule, 1938-2022 . 2023-01-12 . Women In Academia Report.
  9. News: Levine . Miriam . 1995-12-17 . In the prison of memory . 219 . The Boston Globe . 2023-01-12 . Newspapers.com.
  10. Verdins . Karlis . 2021-04-03 . History, trauma, and narrative perspective in A Woman in Amber by Agate Nesaule . Journal of Baltic Studies . en . 52 . 2 . 179–191 . 10.1080/01629778.2020.1850486 . 229509911 . 0162-9778.
  11. News: Moe . Doug . 2009-05-01 . A lifetime of writer's block lifted . 2 . Wisconsin State Journal . 2023-01-12 . Newspapers.com.
  12. News: Martell . Chris . 1998-01-24 . From Exile to Welcome . 21 . Wisconsin State Journal . 2023-01-12 . Newspapers.com.
  13. Web site: Nesaule . Agate . August 28, 2019 . Agate Nesaule: Exile is irreversible . 2023-01-12 . The Cap Times . en.
  14. Krouse . Agate Nesaule . 1973 . A Doris Lessing Checklist . Contemporary Literature . 14 . 4 . 590–597 . 10.2307/1207476 . 1207476 . 0010-7484.
  15. Peters . Margot . Krouse . Agate Nesaule . 1974 . Women and Crime: Sexism in Allingham, Sayers, and Christie . Southwest Review . 59 . 2 . 144–152 . 43468591 . 0038-4712.
  16. Krouse . Agate Nesaule . Peters . Margot . 1975-06-01 . Why Women Kill . Journal of Communication . 25 . 2 . 98–105 . 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1975.tb00584.x . 1123461 . 0021-9916.
  17. Krouse . Agate Nesaule . 1976-11-01 . Doris lessing's feminist plays . World Literature Written in English . 15 . 2 . 305–322 . 10.1080/17449857608588411 . 0093-1705.
  18. Krouse . Agate Nesaule . Peters . Margot . 1977 . Murder in Academe . Southwest Review . 62 . 4 . 371–378 . 43469001 . 0038-4712.
  19. Nesaule . Agate . 1992-10-01 . What happened to Aspazija? In search of feminism in Latvia . Hecate . English . 18 . 2 . 112–126.
  20. Book: Nesaule, Agate . A woman in amber : healing the trauma of war and exile . 1997 . Penguin . 0-14-026190-7 . New York . 36163412.
  21. Book: Nesaule, Agate . In love with Jerzy Kosinski : a novel . 2009 . Terrace Books . 978-0-299-23133-0 . Madison, Wis. . 379424994.
  22. Krouse . Agate Nesaule . 1978-12-01 . Feminism and Art in Fay Weldon's Novels . Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction . 20 . 2 . 5–20 . 10.1080/00111619.1978.10690187 . 0011-1619.

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