Varley O’Connor’s first novel, LIKE CHINA, described by the New York Times as “a first novel that soars,” was published by William Morrow in 1991. Her second novel, A COMPANY OF THREE, about the world of theater and acting, came out from Algonquin Books in 2003. Her third novel, THE CURE, was published by the Bellevue Literary Press in 2007. Scribner will release her most recent novel, THE MASTER'S MUSE, in May 2012.

Her short prose has appeared in Faultline: Journal of Art and Literature, AWP Writer’s Chronicle, Driftwood, Algonkian Magazine, The Sun, and in an anthology, Naming the World and Other Exercises for Creative Writers, edited by Bret Anthony Johnston (Random House, 2008).

After graduating with a BFA in acting from Boston University, O’Connor worked as a stage, film, and television actor before entering the Programs in Writing at the University of California, Irvine. She received her MFA in English with a fiction emphasis in 1989.

She has taught writing and literature at Irvine, Hofstra University, Brooklyn College, Marymount Manhattan College, the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and thrice for the Squaw Valley Community of Writers’ Summer Conference, most recently in August 2007.

In fall 2007 Varley O’Connor joined the faculty at Kent State University, where in addition to undergraduate creative writing, she teaches fiction and creative nonfiction writing in the Northeast Ohio Universities Consortium MFA program.

Books by Varley O'Connor

The Master's Muse

by Varley O'Connor - Biography, Fiction, Historical Fiction

When Tanaquil (Tanny) Le Clercq, the famous ballet dancer, discovers she will never walk again, her marriage is challenged as she endeavors to create a new identity for herself. Meanwhile, her husband George Balanchine, the famous choreographer,  returns to the company, creating new ballets inspired by the ever-younger, more beautiful and talented dancers.