Lorrie Moore (born Marie Lorena Moore; January 13, 1957) is an American writer.
Biography
Marie Lorena Moore was born in
Glens Falls, New York
Glens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States and is the central city of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,700 at the 2010 census. The name was given by Colonel Johannes Glen, the falls ref ...
, and nicknamed "Lorrie" by her parents. She attended
St. Lawrence University. At 19, she won ''
Seventeen
Seventeen or 17 may refer to:
*17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18
* one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017
Literature
Magazines
* ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine
* ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...
'' magazine's fiction contest. The story, "Raspberries," was published in January 1977. After graduating from St. Lawrence, she moved to
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
and worked as a
paralegal for two years.
In 1980, Moore enrolled in
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
's
M.F.A. program, where she was taught by
Alison Lurie.
[Kelly, p. 2.] Upon graduation from Cornell, Moore was encouraged by a teacher to contact agent Melanie Jackson. Jackson sold her collection, ''
Self-Help'', composed almost entirely of stories from her master's thesis, to
Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
in 1983.
Works
Short stories
Her short story collections are ''
Self-Help'' (1985), ''Like Life'', the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' bestseller ''
Birds of America'', and ''
Bark''. She has contributed to ''
The Paris Review
''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phil ...
''. Her first story to appear in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', "You're Ugly, Too," was later included in ''The Best American Short Stories of the Century'', edited by
John Updike. Another story, "People Like That Are the Only People Here," also published in ''The New Yorker'', was reprinted in the 1998 edition of the annual collection ''
The Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of ''The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in con ...
''; the tale of a young child falling sick, the piece was loosely patterned on events in Moore's own life. The story was also included in the 2005 anthology ''
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules
''Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules'' is a 2005 anthology of short stories edited by David Sedaris.
Sedaris published this book in order to support 826NYC, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center in Brooklyn, New York. All of his pr ...
'', edited by
David Sedaris
David Raymond Sedaris (; born December 26, 1956) is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay " Santaland Diaries.” He published his first c ...
.
Moore's ''Collected Stories'' was published by
Faber in the UK in May 2008. It included all the stories in each of her previously published collections, excerpts from her novel ''Anagrams,'' and three previously uncollected stories first published in ''The New Yorker''.
Moore's latest collection, ''
Bark'', was published in 2014.
Novels
Moore's novels are ''Anagrams'' (1986), ''
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?'' (1994), and ''
A Gate at the Stairs
''A Gate at the Stairs'' is a novel by American fiction writer Lorrie Moore. It was published by Random House in 2009. The novel won Amazon.com's "best of the month" designation and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize f ...
'' (2009). ''Who Will Run the Frog Hospital'' is the story of a woman vacationing with her husband who recalls an intense friendship from her adolescence. ''A Gate at the Stairs'' takes place just after the
September 11 attack
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
and is about a 20-year-old Midwestern woman's coming of age.
Children's books
Moore has written a children's book entitled ''The Forgotten Helper'', about an
elf
An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...
whom
Santa Claus mistakenly leaves behind at the home of the worst child on his "good" list. The elf must help the child be good for the coming year so Santa will return next Christmas.
Essays
Moore writes occasionally about books, films, and television for ''
The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
''. A collection of her essays, criticism and comment was published by Knopf as ''See What Can Be Done'' in April 2018.
Academic career
Moore was the
Delmore Schwartz
Delmore Schwartz (December 8, 1913 – July 11, 1966) was an American poet and short story writer.
Early life
Schwartz was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, where he also grew up. His parents, Harry and Rose, both Romanian Jews, separated when ...
Professor in the Humanities at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
, where she taught creative writing for 30 years. She joined the faculty there in 1984 and left to join the faculty at
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
in the fall of 2013, where she is now the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English.
She has also taught at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
, as the
Sidney Harman
Sidney Harman (August 4, 1918 – April 12, 2011) was a Canadian-born American engineer and businessman active in education, government, industry, and publishing. He was the Chairman Emeritus of Harman International Industries, Inc. A co-fou ...
Writer-in-Residence at
Baruch College
Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates unde ...
, and at the MFA in Creative Writing program at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, as well as at
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
and
NYU
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
.
Bibliography
Short stories
* 1985 – ''
Self-Help'';
* 1990 – ''Like Life'';
* 1998 – ''
Birds of America'';
* 2008 – ''The Collected Stories'';
* 2014 – ''
Bark'';
* 2020 – ''Collected Stories'';
Novels
* 1986 – ''Anagrams'';
* 1994 – ''
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?'';
* 2009 – ''
A Gate at the Stairs
''A Gate at the Stairs'' is a novel by American fiction writer Lorrie Moore. It was published by Random House in 2009. The novel won Amazon.com's "best of the month" designation and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize f ...
'';
Children's books
* 1987 – ''The Forgotten Helper'';
Non-fiction
*2018 – ''See What Can Be Done'';
Awards
Moore won the 1998
O. Henry Award
The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry.
The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...
for her short story "People Like That Are the Only People Here," published in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' on January 27, 1997. In 1999, Moore was named as the winner of ''
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
'' International Fiction Prize for ''
Birds of America''. In 2004, she was selected as winner of the
Rea Award for the Short Story
The Rea Award for the Short Story is an annual award given to a living American or Canadian author chosen for unusually significant contributions to short story fiction.
The Award
The Rea Award is named after Michael M. Rea, who was engaged in ...
, for outstanding achievement in that genre.
She was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
in 2006, and is a fellow of the
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. In 2008, she delivered
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
's annual Esmond Harmsworth Lecture in American Arts and Letters at the university's
Rothermere American Institute
The Rothermere American Institute is a department of the University of Oxford dedicated to the interdisciplinary and comparative study of the United States of America and its place in the world. Named after the Harmsworth family, Viscounts Roth ...
. Her 2009 novel, ''A Gate at the Stairs'', was a finalist for the 2010
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US$5000. Fi ...
and for the
Orange Prize for Fiction. ''Bark'' was shortlisted for the 2014
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
__NOTOC__
The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award—named in honour of Frank O'Connor, who devoted much of his work to the form—was an international literary award presented for the best short story collection. It was presented betwe ...
and was a finalist for
The Story Prize The Story Prize is an annual book award established in 2004 that honors the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction with a $20,000 cash award. Each of two runners-up receives $5,000. Eligible books must be written in English and first p ...
.
References
External links
"About Lorrie Moore: A Profile"''Ploughshares'' (Fall 1998)
(1998)
*
''The Believer'' interview(2005)
Interview with Lorrie Moore Lewis Burke Frumkes Radio Show (October 2009)
Interviewfo
KCRW's Bookworm(October 22, 2009)
“Words, Wit, & Wild Hearts: A Conversation with Author Lorrie Moore” ''On Wisconsin'' (Spring 2010)
Moore's essaysfor ''
The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
''
Archiveof Moore's writings for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Lorrie
1957 births
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American women novelists
American women short story writers
Cornell University alumni
Living people
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
O. Henry Award winners
PEN/Malamud Award winners
People from Glens Falls, New York
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
Vanderbilt University faculty
University of Michigan faculty
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
20th-century American short story writers
21st-century American short story writers
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners
Novelists from New York (state)
Novelists from Michigan
Novelists from Tennessee
Novelists from Wisconsin
American women academics