Deborah Kaple

A family shot

Deborah was raised in a small town in northwestern Ohio, where her dad worked as a carpenter and her mom worked building engines at the Ford Motor Company. She has five sisters.

She is married and has two children and one foster-daughter. Both she and her husband, Miguel Centeno, teach at Princeton University.

Besides writing and teaching, Deborah builds things, makes stained glass windows, plays the piano, knits, gardens, and tiles. She is dreaming of learning to weld someday.

EDUCATION

M.F.A., Vermont College, Fiction, 2005
Ph.D., Princeton University, Sociology, 1991
M.A., Princeton University, Sociology, 1987
M.A., George Washington University, International Affairs, 1981
B.A., Ohio State University, International Studies, 1979

LANGUAGES

Russian, Chinese, Spanish

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

--Research Scholar and Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Princeton University, 2008-present
--Senior Writer, The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge, 2007
--Graduate Assistant, Vermont College MFA Program, 2006
--Contributing Editor: The New York Times Almanac, 1991-present
--Contributing Editor, Hunger Mountain Magazine, 2005-present
--Lecturer, Princeton University Community Auditing Program, “Immigrant Fiction,” 2004-2006
--Novel Ghostwriter, John W. Wright Literary Agency, 2000-2001
--Lecturer, Princeton Writing Program, Princeton University, 1997-1999. “The Immigrant Experience in America”
--Associate Director, The Sandra Starr Foundation, Princeton, NJ, 1999-2002.
--Features Writer, Princeton Living Magazine of the Trenton Times,1996-1998
--Freelance Writer, Princeton Alumni Magazine, 1996-1998
--Associate Director, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Princeton University, 1995-1997
--Consultant,The World Bank, Chinese Energy and Transport Division, Washington, D.C., 1989-1990
--Associate Economist, Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, Centrally Planned Economies Division, Washington, D.C., 1981-1984
--Research Assistant, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC, 1979-1981

FICTION

“Flint,” The London Magazine, October/​November 2007
“I Repair Cars,” The MacGuffin, Summer 2004
“Ruthie’s Diary,” The London Magazine, April 2003
“One Dog’s Life,” American Writing, March 2002
“Hairdo to Hell,” U.S.1 Worksheets, July 28, 1999
“The Guilty One,” First place at the College of New Jersey Writers’ Conference, April 1998

A DEGREE OF FREEDOM. Novel in manuscript
BLISS BEND. Novel in manuscript.
WHAT I KNOW. Collection of short stories in manuscript

BOOKS AND SCHOLARLY ARTICLES

GULAG BOSS: A SOVIET MEMOIR, Oxford University Press, 2010

“Citizen Boss---A Gulag Memoir,” Nassau Literary Review, Winter 2008-09

"The Narrative Voice of Place: The Town Voice," Vermont College Critical Thesis, 2005

“Current Data Resources on Non-Profit Arts Organizations,” American Behavioral Scientist, Volume 45, No. 10, June 2002

Editor, World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties, New York: Facts on File Publications, 1999.

“Soviet Assistance and Civilian Cooperation in China,” in Odd Arne Westad, ed., Brothers in Arms: The Rise and Fall of the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1948-1963. Washington, D.C.: Stanford University Press, 1999

“Comparing Sample Frames for Research on Arts Organizations: Results of a Study in Three Metropolitan Areas,” (with Ziggy Rivkin-Fish, et al.). The Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, Vol. 28, No. 1, Spring 1998

Data on Arts Organizations: A Review and Needs Assessment, with Design Implications (with Paul DiMaggio, et al.) Princeton, NJ: Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, 1996

Dream of a Red Factory: High Stalinism in China. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1994

“The China Scholar in Moscow: A Review of Materials and Trends,” in CCP Research Newsletter, No. 5 (Spring 1990), pp. 36-43

Socialist Economic Development: The Transportation Bottleneck in China. China Transport Division, The World Bank, Washington, D.C., 1990

“The BAM: Labor, Migration and Prospects for Settlement,” in Soviet Geography 27, No. 10 (1986), pp. 716-740

“Soviet Passenger Transport, Urban and Long Distance,” Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates Working Paper, Washington, D.C., 1984

“Population Trends, the Educational System and Labor Shortages in the USSR,” Centrally Planned Economies Current Analysis, Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, 6/​11/​84

“Transport in Trouble,” with Holland Hunter, in Soviet Economy in the 1980s: Problems and Prospects, Part 1, Selected papers submitted to the Joint Economic Committee, US Congress, 1982, pp. 216-241

SELECTED FREELANCE ARTICLES

“Toni Morrison’s Atelier,” in J.I. Merritt, ed., The Best of PAW. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Alumni Weekly, 2000
“She Wants You!” Princeton Living, 11/​98
“What’s a Parent to Do?” Princeton Living, 9/​98
“Viagra Falls,” Princeton Living, 7/​98
“The Elements of Style—Interview with Gabriel Garcia Marquez,” Princeton Living, 6/​98
“Schools’ In Session,” Princeton Living, 5/​98
“House-Snooping, by Any Other Name,” Princeton Living, 4/​98
“On the Road,” Princeton Living, 4/​98
“A Medievalist Enchants his Students,” Princeton Alumni Weekly, 4/​8/​98
“The Stronger Sex?” Princeton Living, 4/​98
“Keep the Faith(s),” Princeton Living, 12/​97
“Bah, Humbug!” Princeton Living, 12/​97
“Sales Pitch 101,” Princeton Living, 12/​97
“Jim McGreevey, the Challenger,” Princeton Living, 11/​97
“For Your Listening Pleasure,” Princeton Living, 10/​97
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” Princeton Living, 6/​97
“A Book Club of One’s Own,” Princeton Living, 5/​97
“It’s 10 O’clock-- She Knows Where the Children Are,” Princeton Living, 5/​97
“Boy Story,” Princeton Living, 4/​97
“Spring Break at the Princeton Nursery School,” Princeton Living, 4/​97
“Can We Talk? Between Owner and Parrot,” Princeton Living, 3/​97
“Metal Attraction,” Princeton Living, 3/​97
“The Virtues of Snail Mail,” Princeton Living, 2/​97
“A Barber Shop Duet—Like It’s Always Been,” Princeton Living, 2/​97
“Footnotes,” Princeton Living, 1/​97
“Good Health in a Book,” Princeton Living, 1/​97
“In the Shadow of Christmas,” Princeton Living, 12/​96
“Doing, Learning, Remembering,” Princeton Alumni Weekly, 10/​23/​96
“Oh, Those Renovation Blues,” Princeton Living, 10/​96
“Underneath it All,” Princeton Living, 5/​96
“Reading the Moscow Press,” Princeton Alumni Weekly, 10/​10/​90