Kit Reed
Kit Reed was a versatile and respected author known for her contributions to various literary genres, including fiction, fantasy, science fiction, horror, and young adult literature. Born Lillian Craig in San Diego, she began her storytelling journey at a young age and pursued a career in journalism before turning to fiction writing. Her first notable work, "Mother Isn't Dead, She's Only Sleeping," was published in 1961, and she often infused her narratives with social commentary on topics such as ageism, body image, and women's roles in society. Reed's writing style has been characterized as darkly comic and speculative, and she was known for her refusal to be didactic, focusing instead on the unfolding events within her fictional worlds.
Throughout her career, she wrote under various pseudonyms, including Kit Craig for psychological thrillers and Shelley Hyde for horror. Her work garnered critical acclaim, receiving recognition from reputable literary sources and awards, such as Guggenheim fellowships and a nomination from the American Library Association for Best Books for Young Adults. Reed also shared her expertise in creative writing as an adjunct professor at Wesleyan University. She passed away on September 24, 2017, at the age of 85, leaving behind a rich legacy of thought-provoking literature that continues to resonate with readers.
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Kit Reed
- Born: June 7, 1932
- Birthplace: San Diego, California
- Died: September 24, 2017
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
Biography
Kit Reed’s work, which was marketed for literary, fantasy, science fiction, horror, and young adult audiences, was not easily classified. She wrote psychological thrillers under the name Kit Craig and horror under the pseudonym Shelley Hyde. Her work as Kit Reed tended to be more literary in nature with speculative, rather than technologically based, touches of science fiction. She was described as a psychological writer by one critic. However she is classified, the respect her work has received from literary journals, The New York Times Book Review, and the Norton Anthology of Contemporary Fiction testifies to the quality of her writing.
Born Lillian Craig in San Diego, she was the daughter of Lillian (Hyde) Craig and John Rich Craig, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. In an interview, she described moving a great deal because of her father’s profession. Her devotion to storytelling began as early as five years of age. She was educated in Catholic schools, and the influence of Catholicism can be seen in Catholic Girls and her novella Little Sisters of the Apocalypse, which features a motorcycle gang of radical nuns.
Shortly after graduating from College of Notre Dame in Maryland, the author married Joseph Wayne Reed, Jr., a writer, painter, printmaker, and professor, in 1955. Her first career was as newspaper reporter, initially with the St. Petersburg Times and later with the Hamden Chronicle and New Haven Register. She was voted New England Newspaper Woman of the Year in 1958 and 1959.
Reed’s fiction-writing career began with the 1961 publication of the young adult work Mother Isn’t Dead, She’s Only Sleeping. Much of her subsequent fiction involved caustic commentary on social issues such as the plight of the elderly (“Golden Acres”), the impact of the internet on the human heart (@expectations), society’s religious obsession with the perfect body (Thinner than Thou), proscribed social roles for women (Weird Women, Wired Women), and the possibility of a lucrative trade in designer babies (The Baby Merchant). Reed’s work has been termed darkly comic, speculative, and satiric. Firmly opposed to didacticism in fiction, she raised social and political issues only as a sidelight to what she called the “happening” of the fictional word.
Reed won an Abraham Woursell Foundation literary grant and Guggenheim fellowships for 1964-1965 and 1968. She was a Rockefeller fellow at the Aspen Institute in 1976. The Ballad of T. Rantula was named by the American Library Association as one of the Best Books for Young Adults in 1979.
Reed and her husband had three children and settled in Middletown, Connecticut. She was an adjunct professor at Wesleyan University, where she taught creative writing. She died on September 24, 2017, at the age of eighty-five, of brain cancer.
Bibliography
Chee, Alexander. "Alexander Chee on the Life, Work and Loss of His Mentor, Kit Reed." Los Angeles Times, 16 Nov. 2017, www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-mentor-chee-20171116-story.html. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Drake, Olivia. "Resident Writer Reed Remembered for Being a Fierce Advocate for Students, Fiction." News @ Wesleyan, Wesleyan University, 29 Sept. 2017, newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2017/09/29/resident-writer-reed-remembered-for-being-a-fierce-advocate-for-students-fiction/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Reed, Kit. "The Kitchen Sink Is Boring." Interview by Scott O'Connor. Los Angeles Review of Books, 21 Aug. 2013, lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-kitchen-sink-is-boring-an-interview-with-kit-reed/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Reed, Kit. "Incendiary Ghosts: An Interview with Kit Reed." Interview by Amy Brady. Chicago Review of Books, 26 May 2017, chireviewofbooks.com/2017/05/26/incendiary-ghosts-an-interview-with-kit-reed/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Sandomir, Richard. "Kit Reed, Author of Darkly Humorous Fiction, Dies at 85." The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/obituaries/kit-reed-dead-author-of-darkly-humorous-fiction.html. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.