By Karina Martinez-CarterThe Daily Northwestern
Katherine Shonk moved to Russia for a year to gain life experience and be with her boyfriend. What she ended up with was a book deal.
The Evanston native drew on her memories of living in post-communist Russia in the mid-’90s to compile eight related short stories that were published as “The Red Passport” in 2003.
Four years later, she is working on her second book, which she plans to complete within a year. This one has a setting closer to home – Chicago and Evanston.
“The setting isn’t as much a character as it was in my first book,” Shonk said. “Chicago and Evanston are more in the background and the characters and their relationships and issues are more center stage.”
Shonk said she feels her base is central to her identity.
“I’ve always felt that I’ve been drawn back to Chicago whenever I go anywhere else,” Shonk said. “My family is here and I have many good friends, and it seems that the longer I stay, the more roots I seem to put down and the more connected I get. It gets harder and harder to live anywhere else.”
Marika Lindholm, a former Northwestern sociology professor, is one of Shonk’s good friends. Lindholm and Shonk met about 10 years ago when Shonk was working at the Kellogg School of Management.
Both like to create impromptu stories about the people sitting around them in a cafe when they go out together, Lindholm said.
“She’s someone I completely respect professionally, but she’s also a great person and friend,” Lindholm said. “She mentors me. She’s my writing angel and is the last person to read my work before I submit it.”
Lindholm said despite their shared knowledge and love of literature, the two occasionally have moments where their common sense slips.
Once when the two went on a shopping trip in Shonk’s boyfriend’s car – “his baby,” Lindholm said – the car broke down on Sheridan Road, and they frantically dialed a tow truck. While they were waiting for the tow truck to arrive, they realized the car had run out of gas, not broken down. The tow truck brought them gas, and they continued on their shopping trip.
“We’re kind of the literature professor-type geeks who don’t always have common sense,” Lindholm said with a laugh.
Lindholm said she and Shonk took one of Prof. Fred Shafer’s writing classes in the School of Continuing Studies before Shonk’s book was published.
It was Lindholm’s first year in the program, but Shonk had been taking Shafer’s classes for years and “was already a star,” Lindholm said. One of Shonk’s short stories that eventually would be in “The Red Passport” had just been published in “Best American Short Stories 2001.”
Shafer called Shonk one of his outstanding students. He said she has had many literary breakthroughs, not just because she was published in “Best American” and her next book was well-received, but because it is rare for a young author’s first book to be a collection of short stories.
Shonk received a two book contract from her publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, upon the purchase of her first book. This is rare because writers usually seek out publishers after completing their manuscripts, Shafer said.
“She’s in a unique position right now, but she’s the right person to handle it because she’s a patient and disciplined writer,” Shafer said. “I’ve watched her grow a lot.”
In addition to writing, Shonk works from Evanston as an editor and researcher for Harvard Business School and writes book reviews for The Moscow Times, an English-language newspaper in Russia. Living in Evanston and being near Chicago is ideal for her as a writer, she said.
“It’s not like in New York City where there are so many writers and a lot of competition and egos,” Shonk said.
“Here, I have really down-to-earth writer friends and it’s just about the writing – not about the scramble to get published. Chicago keeps me grounded.”
Reach Karina Martinez-Carter at [email protected].
