This Is Not the Ivy League: A Memoir (American Lives) - Hardcover

Mary Clearman Blew is the author of the acclaimed essay collection All but the Waltz and the memoir Balsamroot. She is the editor of When Montana and I Were Young: A Memoir of a Frontier Childhood, available in a Bison Books edition. Her most recent novel, Jackalope Dreams, is also available in a Bison Books edition. She is a professor of English at the University of Idaho and has twice won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, once in fiction and once in nonfiction. She is also the winner of a Western Heritage Award and the Western Literature Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award.

"The author of this lucid, elegant memoir was a pioneer both literally and figuratively: Raised on a Montana homestead, she became a trailblazing woman in the academy."—Ms. Magazine (Ms. Magazine)

"[This Is Not the Ivy League is] a fierce and unsentimental book that stands eloquent testament to the high price that women of a certain generation had to pay to pursue their dreams."—Kirkus Reviews (Kirkus Reviews 2011-08-01)

“Blew’s unflinching self-scrutiny is to her credit, and it’s hard not to be sympathetic. . . . There’s something fascinating about the notion of the anti-memoir. Paradoxically, it’s honest. Who can justify her own life? When a snooty Northern Montana College professor would say, ‘At Yale, we used to . . . ,’ Blew’s colleagues would hoot, ‘This is not the Ivy League!’ It makes a terrific, defiant title.”—Louisa Thomas, New York Times Book Review (Louisa Thomas New York Times Book Review 2011-09-02)

"Blew is a wonderful writer whose work has never reached the audience it deserves."—Diane Leach, PopMatters (Diane Leach PopMatters 2011-09-19)

"Blew's memoir is an honest, tense, and balanced behind-the-scenes account of defying tradition and accepting blame. Her settings are atmospheric, her scenes are rebellious and her story will inspire anyone in pursuit of goals that seem out of the box."—B. Lynn Goodwin, Story Circle Book Reviews (B. Lynn Goodwin Story Circle Book Reviews 2011-12-22)

"Though Blew says she can't fathom Derrida, postmodernism permeates her craft. She offers groups of snapshots, a kaleidoscope of memories, a brave new quilt. . . . It is not the rags-to-riches story we expect of the classic memoir, but a more lyric, hard-won, and loving testament."—Lois M. Welch, Western American Literature (Lois M. Welch Western American Literature)