Gail Caldwell (born January 20, 1951) is an American critic and author. She was the chief book critic for ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', where she was on staff from 1985 to 2009. Caldwell was the winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. The award was for eight Sunday reviews and two other columns written in 2000. According to the Pulitzer Prize board, those columns were noted for “her insightful observations on contemporary life and literature.” Caldwell was born and raised in

Amarillo Amarillo ( ; Spanish for " yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall Cou ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. After graduating from

Tascosa High School Tascosa High School is a public high school located in Amarillo, Texas ( USA) and classified as a 5A school by the UIL. It is one of four high schools in the Amarillo Independent School District located in southern Potter County. The school ...

, she attended

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sy ...

for a while but transferred to

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

and obtained two degrees in

American studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory. Schol ...

. She was an instructor at the University of Texas until 1981. Before joining ''The Boston Globe'', Caldwell taught feature writing at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

, worked as the arts editor of the ''

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

'' and wrote for the publications ''

New England Monthly ''New England Monthly'' was a magazine published in Haydenville, Massachusetts, from 1984 to 1990. History and profile Founded in 1984 by Robert Nylen (publisher) and Daniel Okrent (editor), it won the National Magazine Award for General Excel ...

'' and ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

''. She lives in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

and wrote the 2006

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

, ''A Strong West Wind : A Memoir'' and the 2010 '' Let's Take the Long Way Home'', a memoir of her friendship with author Caroline Knapp. Caldwell published a third memoir in 2014, ''New Life, No Instructions'', about her childhood bout with polio.

References

External links

*
Birnbaum v. Gail Caldwell
', an interview with The Morning News. {{DEFAULTSORT:Caldwell, Gail 1951 births Living people Boston University faculty American literary critics Women literary critics Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts People from Amarillo, Texas Pulitzer Prize for Criticism winners The Boston Globe people Journalists from Texas Writers from Texas University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts alumni American women journalists American women academics 21st-century American women American women critics