Author profiles

Many notable authors will be appearing in panels throughout the weekend, discussing their works. While tickets for admissions into popular panels are sold out, some tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis near the Health and Wellness Stage up to 30 minutes before a session begins. A&E staff members highlighted some of the more well-known writers and documented some of their work.

““ Compiled by Edward Truong, Shelley Brown and Jennifer Bastien, A&E senior staff

MARY HIGGINS CLARK

Mary Higgins Clark’s novels, of which there are 24, have all been on the bestseller list in the United States and are also popular in many European countries, including France ““ where she is the No. 1 fiction bestselling author and has received multiple literary awards. She got her start in the Bronx, New York and worked as a secretary and a flight attendant on Pan American Airline’s international flights. Clark only began writing when she married a neighbor, nine years her senior in 1950. She was left a widow in 1964 and wrote radio scripts to pay the bills. Her first novel ““ a fictional biography of George Washington ““ wasn’t well received, but upon turning to suspense fiction, she found her niche. After her first suspense novel, “Where Are the Children?” was an instant bestseller when it came out in 1975, Clark returned to school to get her philosophy degree from Fordham University in 1979. She lives now in Saddle River, New Jersey and Manhattan with her second husband John J. Conheeney, former Merrill Lynch Futures’ CEO.

Clark will appear with her daughter, Carol in conversation with Connie Martinson at noon on Saturday in Dodd 147.

Notable Works:

“Where Are the Children?” (1975)

“Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1996)

“Before I Say Good-bye” (2000)

“On the Street Where You Live” (2001)

“Kitchen Privileges: A Memoir” (memoir) (2001)

“Just Take My Heart” (2009)

““ Jennifer Bastien

DAVE EGGERS

Dave Eggers, the postmodern author known for his quirky writing style and deeply moving themes, was born in Boston.

Egger’s life was changed dramatically when he lost his mother to stomach cancer and then his father to brain and lung cancer shortly thereafter.

At the age of 21, Eggers was charged with raising his youngest sibling, “Toph,” who was 8 years old.

Egger’s struggles and triumphs as a single parent are chronicled in the fictional memoir, “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,” a work that defies the conventions of literature, often breaking the fourth wall to make commentary about the plot.

In addition to literature, Eggers has most recently emerged as a screenwriter, penning both the screenplays for the indie comedy “Away We Go,” starring Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski, and the more notable animated film based on the successful children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are.”

Notable Works:

“A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” (2001)

“You Shall Know Our Velocity” (novel) (2002)

“Sacrament” (revised and expanded version of You Shall Know Our Velocity) (2003)

“The Unforbidden is Compulsory; or, Optimism” (novella) (2004)

“How We Are Hungry” (short stories) (2004)

“What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng” (novel) (2006)

“Away We Go” (screenplay) (2009)

“Where the Wild Things Are” (screenplay) (2009)

““ Shelley Brown

PAUL HARDING

While many new authors publish debut novels each year, not very many end up winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for their first effort. Paul Harding, a musician and author from Massachusetts, should serve as a shining example to creative writing students.

An independent publisher released his novel “Tinkers” last year, a story about a dying clock repairman set in New England. Critics commended his work for its imaginative use of language to describe time, nature and the complexities of the human character. However, the success of the novel should not just be attributed to its powerful prose, but rather the publicity garnished from the small, independent bookstores who first carried Harding’s novel. The buzz for “Tinkers” helped accelerate the 192-page novel into the mainstream, topping many critic’s best-of lists for 2009 and earning one of the most prestigious awards in literature.

Harding is the drummer for the band Cold Water Flat and a graduate of the famed Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He will be appearing at the “Fiction: Life Stories” panel on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Young Hall with authors Colson Whitehead and Rafael Yglesias.

Notable Works:

“Tinkers” (2009)

““ Edward Truong

T. C. BOYLE

T. Coraghessan Boyle, the prolific fiction writer known for his biting satire and his red Converse high-tops, was born in Peekskill, New York, to a janitor father and secretary mother, as Thomas John Boyle. At age 17 he changed his middle name to Coraghessan.

He attended the State University of New York at Potsdam and received a B.A. in English and history after failing his audition on the saxophone. After teaching for four years at the high school where both his parents worked, Boyle was accepted into the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. After receiving his degree, he stayed on after receiving his degree and then joined the faculty at USC in 1978 as a professor of creative writing, where he’s taught ever since. He has credited writing with helping him kick his heroin habit many years ago and the self-destructive tendencies that came with it.

Boyle will appear in a panel on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Broad 2160.

Notable Works:

“Descent of Man” (stories) (1979)

“World’s End” (1987) (1988 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction)

“The Road to Wellville” (1993)

“Tooth and Claw” (stories) (2005)

“The Women” (2009)

““ Jennifer Bastien

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