1990: Tale of survival

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Tags: Arts, books, summer-2010

Elizabeth Rosner

When Elizabeth Rosner got the call to say her second novel would soon be re-released in paperback, she had two reasons to be hopeful.

“The news of the deal came to me on the very same day that I shaved my head in preparation for my chemo treatments,” Ms Rosner said.

“So I feel that my own second chance at life is coinciding with the renewed life of this novel, which is in itself a story of hope and redemption.”

Blue Nude is a haunting love story which follows the tale of Danzig, a once prominent painter who now teaches at an art institute in San Francisco, and his muse Merav, the Israeli-born granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor and herself a former art student.

The paperback edition was published in September.

Ms Rosner’s writing is inspired by her heritage: both of her parents are Jewish Holocaust survivors.

Her father, who was born in Hamburg, was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, while her mother survived the war by hiding in the Polish countryside.

Ms Rosner grew up in Schenectady, New York, and now lives in Berkeley, California, where she works as a full-time writer.

Ms Rosner said her time at UQ helped to advance her career.

“I remember many brilliant as well as generous people inside and outside my department, fellow students as well as faculty members who both inspired and assisted me,” she said.

“In particular I was thrilled to be exposed to post-colonial literature, and that interest has remained with me to this day.”

She was diagnosed with breast cancer on her 49th birthday – December 31, 2008.
For Ms Rosner, 2009 was defined by treatment, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

“Turning 50 on New Year’s Eve 2009 was an especially significant milestone, as you can imagine,” she said.

“Often people with cancer are told how necessary it is to have a ‘positive attitude’.

“But I believe that each of us has to find our own way of coping with the extraordinary emotional challenges of cancer.”

Now cancer-free and feeling “gratefully healthy”, she is penning her third novel, Electric City, which is set in her hometown in Upstate New York.

Her first novel, The Speed of Light, has been translated into nine languages and is the winner of several literary awards.

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