Carolyn Banks is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 novelist, short-story writer, editor, and screen writer residing in Bastrop, Texas

Bastrop, Texas

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there are 5340 people in Bastrop, organized into 2034 households and 1336 families. The population density is 734.8 people per square mile . There are 2,239 housing units at an average density of 308.1 per square mile...

.

Her first national publication was her short story "Idyll," which appeared in Voyages http://washingtonart.com/beltway/3dceditors.html, a literary magazine, in 1968, alongside the work of Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin was a French-Cuban author, based at first in France and later in the United States, who published her journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death, her erotic literature, and short stories...

, Josephine Miles

Josephine Miles

Josephine Miles was an American poet and literary critic; the first woman to be tenured in the English Department at the University of California, Berkeley. She wrote over a dozen books of poetry and several works of criticism....

 and Theodore Weiss. In 1972, the oft-reprinted "Growing Up Polish in Pittsburgh" appeared in American Mix (Lippincott). A version of this story appeared as "The Virgin of Polish Hill" in Plume's 1992 Catholic Girls. Her stories appeared in several issues of Yellow Silk

Yellow Silk

Yellow Silk: Journal of Erotic Arts was a magazine founded by writer and editor Lily Pond and published quarterly from 1981 to 1996.-Anthologies:Works published in this magazine were anthologized in:...

.

Her first novel, the ground-breaking Mr. Right (Viking), appeared in 1979. Cosmopolitan
called the novel "...a triumph of erotic and witty narrative tension with an impact as startling as it is satisfying." The book was reprinted by SECOND CHANCE PRESS http://www.thepermanentpress.com/about.ihtml in 1999.

Mr. Right was followed by The Darkroom (Viking, 1980), The Girls on the Row (Crown, 1983) and Patchwork (Crown, 1986).

Her short stories continued to appear in anthologies, notably Michele Slung's I Shudder at Your Touch (HarperCollins, 1992) and Slow Hand (HarperCollins).

In the 1990s Banks wrote a series of comic mysteries set in the equestrian world of dressage, a competitive sport that Banks herself practiced. These novels, originally published by Fawcett and reprinted by Amber Quill Press http://amberquill.com/ include: Death by Dressage, Groomed for Death, Death on the Diagonal, Murder Well Bred and A Horse to Die For.

In 2007, Amber Quill also reprinted a 1995 literary novel Banks wrote entitled The Turtle's Voice. The novel was the winner of the 1995 Austin Book Award.

Banks is listed in Contemporary Authors http://www.gale-edit.com/cas/, Vol. 105 and is a member of Author's Guild and the Texas Institute of Lettershttp://www.wtamu.edu/til/.

Involved in the local television access station in Bastrop, Texas, Banks has begun to write and produce short movies, including "Dead On" and "Bastrop: The First 175 Years," which won Best Documentary at a 2007 South Texas film festival. In 2000, Banks founded a nonprofit organization called Upstart, Inc.http://www.upstartbastrop.com/, a media arts organization that brings in experts to teach screenwriting, production and post-production.

Film

•Invicta (2009, feature)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1536019/

•A Child's Christmas in Texas (2010, short)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1806742/combined

•Sex and the Septuagenarian (2011, short)

Books

•Mr. Right (1979, reprinted 1999, novel)http://www.amazon.com/s?search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Carolyn%20Banks

•The Darkroom (1980, novel)

•The Girls on the Row (1983, novel)

•Patchwork (1986, novel)

•Tart Tales: Elegant Erotic Stories (1993, short story collection)

•Death by Dressage(1993, novel)

•Groomed for Death ((1995, novel)

•Murder Well Bred (1995, novel)

•Death on the Diagonal (1996, novel)

•A Horse to Die For (1996, novel)

•The Turtle's Voice (1995, reprinted 2007)

Short stories

•"Idyll"

•"Growing Up Polish in Pittsburgh"

•"The Virgin of Polish Hill"

•"Salon Satin"

•"Fortune"

•"A Long, Long Time"

•"An Early American Love Story"

•"Malaquite"

•"The Faithful"

•"The Man Upstairs"

•"Mission Rock"

•"Zap!"

•"Shhh, Shhh, It's Christmas"

•"The Wish"

•"The Country Gentleman"

•"Sauna"

•"The Shame Girl"

•"Death Is a Lonesome Cowboy"

•"Deuce"

•"Silk Lady"

•"Arrowhead"

•"Jamming With Juba"

•"Bernadette's Song"

•"Sex and the Single Parent"

•"A Real One"

•"Jewels""

•"Mean to My Father""

•"Random Violence"

Anthologies containing stories by Carolyn Banks

•Catholic Girls: Stories, Poems, and Memoirs (1992)http://www.amazon.com/dp/0452268427

•I Shudder at Your Touch (1991)http://www.amazon.com/dp/0451450795

•Slow Hand (1992)http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060165987

•Full Frontal Fiction (2000)http://www.amazon.com/dp/0609806580

•Chick-Lit: Postfeminist Fiction (1995), first use of genre term Chick lit

Chick lit

Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. The genre sold well during the 1990s and 2000s, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to chick lit...

Editor

•A Loving Voice: A Caregiver's Book of Read-Aloud Stories for the Elderly (1992, coeditor)

•A Loving Voice II: A Caregiver's Book of More Read-Aloud Stories for the Elderly (1994, coeditor)