Ann Patchett facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ann Patchett
|
|
|---|---|
.jpg)
Patchett speaks during the Kennedy Center Honors, 2023
|
|
| Born | December 2, 1963 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist, memoirist |
| Education | Sarah Lawrence College (BA) University of Iowa (MFA) |
| Period | 1992–present |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
| Notable works | Bel Canto |
Ann Patchett (born December 2, 1963) is a well-known American author. She writes many types of books, including novels and memoirs. A memoir is a book about a part of someone's life.
Ann Patchett won important awards for her novel Bel Canto in 2002. These awards were the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her book The Dutch House was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2020.
Contents
Biography
Ann Patchett was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 2, 1963. Her father was a police captain, and her mother was a nurse who later became a novelist. When Ann was six years old, her family moved to Nashville, Tennessee.
Ann went to St. Bernard Academy, a private Catholic school for girls in Nashville. After finishing high school, she attended Sarah Lawrence College. She then went to the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. This is a famous program where writers learn and improve their skills.
While at the University of Iowa, Ann lived with her friend, Lucy Grealy. Lucy was also a writer, known for her memoirs and poems. Ann later wrote a memoir about their long friendship called Truth & Beauty (2004).
In her late twenties, Ann Patchett received a special fellowship. This allowed her to focus on writing her first novel. This book, The Patron Saint of Liars, was published in 1992.
In 2010, Ann Patchett helped start a bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee. It is called Parnassus Books. The store opened in November 2011. In 2016, Parnassus Books grew even more. They added a bookmobile, which is like a library on wheels. This helped them share books with more people in Nashville.
Today, Ann Patchett lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband, Karl VanDevender.
Writing
Ann Patchett's first published story appeared in The Paris Review. This happened even before she finished college.
For nine years, Patchett worked for Seventeen magazine. She mostly wrote non-fiction articles for them. Non-fiction means it's about real facts and events.
Ann Patchett has also written for many other well-known magazines. These include The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and Vogue.
In 1992, she published her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. This book was later made into a television movie in 1998. Her second novel, Taft, won an award in 1994.
Her fourth novel, Bel Canto, came out in 2001. This book became very popular. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the PEN/Faulkner Award.
In 2008, Ann Patchett published What now?. This was an essay based on a speech she gave at her old college. She also edited The Best American Short Stories in 2006.
In 2011, she published State of Wonder. This novel is set in the Amazon jungle. In 2016, her novel Commonwealth was released. Ann Patchett said this book was like her "autobiographical first novel." This means it had parts of her own life in it.
In 2019, Ann Patchett wrote her first children's book, Lambslide. She also published the novel The Dutch House that same year. This book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2020.
In 2021, she published These Precious Days. This is a collection of essays, which are short pieces of writing about a topic. Many people loved this book. In 2023, her novel Tom Lake became a New York Times Best Seller.
In 2024, Ann Patchett shared some interesting thoughts in an interview. She talked about how she stays focused on her writing. She said she does not watch television or use a cell phone. She also avoids social media. She believes this helps her concentrate for long periods.
Her books have been translated into more than 30 different languages. This means people all over the world can read her stories.
Awards and honors
For specific works
- Nashville Banner Tennessee Writer of the Year Award, 1994.
- Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize (Taft), 1994.
- National Book Critics Circle Award finalist (Bel Canto), 2001.
- PEN/Faulkner Award (Bel Canto), 2002.
- Orange Prize (Bel Canto), 2002.
- BookSense Book of the Year (Bel Canto), 2003.
- Wellcome Trust Book Prize shortlist (State of Wonder), 2011.
For corpus
- Guggenheim Fellowship, 1995 (an award for mid-career professionals).
- In 2012, Ann Patchett was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
- Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award (for her entire body of work), 2014.
- 2014 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement.
- American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2017.
- Carl Sandburg Literary Award from Chicago Public Library Foundation, 2024.
Published works
Nonfiction
See also
In Spanish: Ann Patchett para niños
