Caroline Paul (born July 29, 1963, in New York City) is an American writer of fiction and non-fiction.
Early years and education
Caroline Paul was raised in New York City; Paris, France; and
Cornwall, Connecticut
Cornwall is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,567 at the 2020 census.
History
The town of Cornwall, Connecticut, is named after the county of Cornwall, England. The town was incorporated in 1740, near ...
. Her father was an investment banker, her mother a social worker. She was educated in journalism and documentary film at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
.
Career
She volunteered as a journalist at Berkeley
public radio
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
station
KPFA
KPFA (94.1 FM) is an American listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station sign ...
before (in 1988) joining the
San Francisco Fire Department
The San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) provides firefighting, hazardous materials response services, technical rescue services and emergency medical response services to the City and County of San Francisco, California.
History
Volunteer Depa ...
, as one of the first women hired by the department.
She worked most of her career on Rescue 2, where she and her crew were responsible for search and rescue in fires. Rescue 2 members were also trained and sent on SCUBA dive searches, rope and rappelling rescues, surf rescues, confined space rescues, all hazardous material calls, and the most severe train and car wrecks.
Her first book was the nonfiction memoir ''Fighting Fire'', published in 1998. It was a finalist at the Northern California Book Awards and an alternate selection for the Book of the Month Club. Her second, the 2006 historical novel ''East Wind, Rain'' is based on the
Niihau Incident, a historical event in which a Japanese pilot crash-landed on the private Hawaiian island of
Niihau
Niihau ( Hawaiian: ), anglicized as Niihau ( ), is the westernmost main and seventh largest inhabited island in Hawaii. It is southwest of Kauaʻi across the Kaulakahi Channel. Its area is . Several intermittent playa lakes provide wetland hab ...
, after the
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...
. "When it's over, we don't want to leave," said the New York Times review of the book.
["East Wind Rain Review"](_blank)
New York Times ''Lost Cat, A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology'' was published in 2013 and illustrated by her partner, artist
Wendy MacNaughton
Wendy MacNaughton is an illustrator and graphic journalist based in San Francisco. MacNaughton has published eleven books, including three New York Times best-sellers. MacNaughton's work combines illustration, journalism, and social work to tell ...
. It details Paul and MacNaughton's high-tech search for their cat.
The PBS Newshour described the book as "A thoughtful, kind and funny story about the love people can have for their pets and the weird places that this love and accompanying devotion can take them. But it also travels beyond the realm of human-pet relationships, offering commentary on all relationships and the roles of those we love, and sometimes don't love, in our lives."
["A Purrfect Tale of Love, Cats and Technology"](_blank)
The PBS Newshour
In 2016, Paul published ''The Gutsy Girl, Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure''.
["New York Times Best Sellers List"](_blank)
New York Times She calls it "Lean in for girls, set not in a boardroom, but in trees, on cliff edges and down wild rivers".
["Amazon: Gutsy Girl"](_blank)
Amazon.com In a controversial New York Times essay that preceded publication she wrote that risk teaches kids responsibility, problem solving, and confidence. "...By cautioning girls away from these experiences we are not protecting them. We are woefully under-preparing them for life."
New York Times ''The Gutsy Girl'' became a New York Times bestseller.
Her
TED talk
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
explains why it is important that girls get out of their comfort zones and learn to take risks when they are young.
In 2018 Paul collaborated with tea expert Sebastian Beckwith, and published ''A Little Tea Book''.
She is a member of the
San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, a workspace and literary community whose members have included
Ingrid Rojas Contreras,
Po Bronson
Po Bronson (born March 14, 1964) is an American journalist and author who lives in San Francisco.
Early life and education
Bronson was born in Seattle, Washington. After attending Lakeside School in Seattle, he graduated from Stanford Univers ...
,
Mary Roach
Mary Roach (born March 20, 1959) is an American author specializing in popular science and humor. She has published six New York Times bestsellers: '' Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers'' (2003), '' Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife ...
,
ZZ Packer
Zuwena "ZZ" Packer (b. January 12, 1973) is an American writer. She is primarily known for her works of short fiction.
Early life and education
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Packer grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and Louisville, Kentucky. "ZZ" was a ...
,
Noah Hawley
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...
,
Vanessa Hua
Vanessa Hua is a journalist and writer based in San Francisco. She is the author of ''Deceit and Other Possibilities'' (Willow Books, 2016; Counterpoint Press, 2020) and ''A River of Stars'' (Ballantine) and the novel, ''Forbidden City'' (Peng ...
,
Ethan Canin
Ethan Andrew Canin (born July 19, 1960) is an American author, educator, and physician. He is a member of the faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
Canin was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while his parents were vacatio ...
,
Julia Scheeres,
Vendela Vida
Vendela Vida (born September 6, 1971) is an American novelist, journalist, editor, screenplay writer, and educator. She is the author of multiple books, has worked as a writing teacher, and is a founder and editor of '' The Believer'' magazine.
...
, and
TJ Stiles.
["Inhabitants"](_blank)
, SF Writer's Grotto website
Personal life
In 2018, Paul and MacNaughton were married.
Caroline Paul's
identical twin
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...
is ''
Baywatch
''Baywatch'' is an American action drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, and Gregory J. Bonann, ...
'' actress
Alexandra Paul
Alexandra Elizabeth Paul (born July 29, 1963) is an American actress, activist, health coach, and former model. Paul began her career modeling in New York before landing her first major role in John Carpenter's horror film ''Christine'' (1983). ...
.
["Alexandra Paul: biography"](_blank)
, Alexandra Paul's website Due to Alexandra's fame on ''Baywatch'', Caroline Paul was often mistaken for her twin sister even when in full firefighter gear. The two sisters were featured in a
People magazine
''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC (company), IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People ...
feature on twins, "Seeing Double," in 1998. Her younger brother Jonathan Paul is a militant
animal rights activist
The animal rights (AR) movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals ...
; he was once a leader of the Animal Liberation Front, considered by the US government to be a domestic terrorism group. The ALF’s mission was to free animals from captivity, often from medical research labs and puppy mills. He was released in 2011 after serving a four-year sentence in
federal prison
A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for convicts who violated federal law (U.S., Mexico), inmates considered dangerous (Brazil), or those s ...
for the 1997 arson of a
slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility.
Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...
in
Redmond, Oregon
Redmond is a city in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. Incorporated on July 6, 1910, the city is on the eastern side of Oregon's Cascade Range, in the High Desert in Central Oregon. From Redmond there is access to recreational opportunit ...
.
"My brother is in prison. He is my hero..."
, Alexandra Paul's website statement about her brother
Paul flies ultralight
Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with ailer ...
s, paraglider
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'po ...
s and gyrocopters. An accomplished athlete, she trained at Lake Placid in the sport of luge, and became one of the first women to participate in the sport of skeleton, which at the time excluded females. She lobbied its governing body, the US Bobsled Association, to join the team but was denied because of her gender.["Biography"](_blank)
, Caroline Paul's website
Paul has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru. He became well-known through his ''4-Hour'' self-help book series—including ''The 4-Hour Work Week'', ''The 4-Hour Body'', and '' ...
' book ''Tools of Titans
''Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers'' (2016) is a self-help book by Timothy Ferriss, an American writer, educational activist, and entrepreneur. He interviewed more than 100 "wor ...
''.
Works
* ''Fighting Fire'',
(author's page)
* ''East Wind, Rain'',
* ''Lost Cat'',
* ''The Gutsy Girl'',
* ''A Little Tea Book,'' ISBN 9781632869029
author's page
* ''You Are Mighty,'' ISBN 978-1681198224
author's page
External links
Caroline Paul's official website
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Caroline
1963 births
Living people
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American women novelists
Writers from California
Identical twins
American twins
American lesbian writers
American LGBT novelists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
American women non-fiction writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
LGBT people from Connecticut
LGBT people from California
Novelists from Connecticut
21st-century LGBT people