Anita Shreve

24 featured booksAnita Shreve

Anita Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts (just outside Boston), the eldest of three daughters. Early literary influences include having read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton when she was a junior in high school (a short novel she still claims as one of her favorites) and everything Eugene O'Neill ever wrote while she was a senior (to which she attributes a somewhat dark streak in her own work). After graduating from Tufts University, she taught high school for a number of years in and around Boston. In the middle of her last year, she quit (something that, as a parent, she finds appalling now) to start writing. "I had this panicky sensation that it was now or never." Joking that she could wallpaper her bathroom with rejections from magazines for her short stories ("I really could have," she says), she published her early work in literary journals. One of these stories, "Past the Island, Drifting," won an O. Henry prize. Despite this accolade, she quickly learned that one couldn't make a living writing short fiction. Switching to journalism, Shreve traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, where she lived for three years, working as a journalist for an African magazine. One of her novels, The Last Time They Met, contains bits and pieces from her time in Africa. Returning to the United States, Shreve was a writer and editor for a number of magazines in New York. Later, when she began her family, she turned to freelancing, publishing in the New York Times Magazine, New York magazine and dozens of others. In 1989, she published her first novel, Eden Close. Since then she has written 12 other novels, among them The Weight of Water, The Pilot's Wife, The Last Time They Met, A Wedding in December, and Body Surfing. In 1998, Shreve received the PEN/L. L. Winship Award and the New England Book Award for fiction. In 1999, she received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey, and The Pilot's Wife became the 25th selection of Oprah's Book Club and an international bestseller. In April 2002, CBS aired the film version of The Pilot's Wife, starring Christine Lahti, and in fall 2002, The Weight of Water, starring Elizabeth Hurley and Sean Penn, was released in movie theaters. Still in love with the novel form, Shreve writes only in that genre. "The best analogy I can give to describe writing for me is daydreaming," she says. "A certain amount of craft is brought to bear, but the experience feels very dreamlike." Shreve is married to a man she met when she was 13. She has two children and three stepchildren, and in the last eight years has made tuition payments to seven colleges and universities.

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OL29845A

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Anita Shreve
Personal name
Anita Shreve
Source identifier
OL29845A

Featured books

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Works in catalog

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The Lives of Stella Bain
Representative edition published 2014
Open Work
De levens van Stella Bain
Representative edition published 2014
Open Work
The Lives Of Stella Bain
Representative edition published 2013
Open Work
Stella Bain
Representative edition published 2013
Open Work
Une scandaleuse affaire
Representative edition published 2013
Open Work
Un jour après l'autre
Representative edition published 2013
Open Work
Beim Leben meiner Familie
Representative edition published 2013
Open Work
Het eerste jaar van haar huwelijk
Representative edition published 2012
Open Work
De redding
Representative edition published 2011
Open Work
A change in altitude
Representative edition published 2010
Open Work
Testimony
Representative edition published 2010
Open Work
Rescue
Representative edition published 2010
Open Work
Un mariage en décembre
Representative edition published 2010
Open Work
Body Surfing
Representative edition published 2009
Open Work
De getuigenis
Representative edition published 2009
Open Work
The last time they met
Representative edition published 2008
Open Work
Une lumière sur la neige
Representative edition published 2008
Open Work
Un amour volé
Representative edition published 2008
Open Work
A Wedding in December
Representative edition published 2007
Open Work
Andrew Stevovich
Representative edition published 2007
Open Work
Eine Hochzeit im Dezember
Representative edition published 2007
Open Work
Resistance
Representative edition published 2006
Open Work
All He Ever Wanted
Representative edition published 2006
Open Work
A wedding in December
Representative edition published 2006
Open Work