Mary Karr (born January 16, 1955) is an American poet, essayist and memoirist from

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region co ...

. She is widely noted for her 1995 bestselling memoir ''

The Liars' Club ''The Liars' Club'' is a memoir by the American author Mary Karr. Published in 1995 by Viking Adult, the book tells the story of Karr's childhood in the 1960s in a small industrial town in Southeast Texas. The title refers to her father and his ...

''. Karr is the

Jesse Truesdell Peck Jesse Truesdell Peck (April 4, 1811 – May 17, 1883) was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1872. Birth and family He was born on April 4, 1811, in Middlefield Center, Otsego County, New York. His family was of Eng ...

Professor of English Literature at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

Career

Memoirs

Karr's

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 ...

'', published in 1995, was a ''

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 ...

'' bestseller for over a year, and was named one of the year's best books. It explores her deeply troubled childhood, most of which was spent in a gritty industrial section of Southeast Texas in the 1960s. Karr was encouraged to write her personal history by her friend Tobias Wolff, but has said she only took up the project when her marriage fell apart. She followed the book with a second memoir, ''Cherry'' (2000), about her late adolescence and early womanhood. A third memoir, ''Lit: A Memoir'', which she says details "my journey from blackbelt sinner and lifelong agnostic to unlikely Catholic," came out in November 2009. The memoir describes Karr's time as an alcoholic and the salvation she found in her conversion to Catholicism. She describes herself as a

cafeteria Catholic A Cafeteria Catholic is a Catholic who dissents from the doctrinal or moral teachings of the Catholic Church, including those who choose not to receive one or more of the seven sacraments (for example thinking confession to a priest is not necessa ...

.Edelstein, Wendy (2006-02-15)
"An Improbable Catholic"
UC Berkeley News. Retrieved 2010-2-08.

Poetry

Karr won a 1989

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and ...

for her poetry. She was a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in poetry in 2005 and has won Pushcart prizes for both her poetry and essays. Karr has published five volumes of poetry: ''Abacus'' (Wesleyan University Press, CT, 1987, in its New Poets series), ''The Devil's Tour'' ( New Directions NY, 1993, an original TPB), ''Viper Rum'' ( New Directions NY, 1998, an original TPB), ''Sinners Welcome'' (

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

, NY, 2006), and ''Tropic of Squalor'' (

, NY, 2018). Her poems have appeared in major literary magazines such as ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meani ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', and ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. Karr's Pushcart Award-winning essay, "Against Decoration", was originally published in the quarterly review ''

Parnassus Mount Parnassus (; el, Παρνασσός, ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is and historically has been especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers ...

'' (1991) and later reprinted in ''Viper Rum''. In "Against Decoration", Karr took a stand in favor of content over poetic style. She argued emotions need to be directly expressed and clarity should be a watch-word: characters are too obscure, the presented physical world is often "foggy" (that is imprecise), references are "showy" (both non-germane and overused), metaphors overshadow expected meaning, and techniques of language (polysyllables, archaic words, intricate syntax, "yards of adjectives") only "slow a reader's understanding". Another essay, "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer", was originally published in ''Poetry'' (2005). Karr tells of moving from agnostic alcoholic to baptized Catholic of the decidedly "cafeteria" kind, yet one who prays twice daily with loud fervor from her "foxhole". In this essay, Karr argues that poetry and prayer arise from the same sources within us.

Other

In May 2015, Karr served as the commencement speaker at the 161st commencement for

Personal life

Karr was born in Groves, Texas, on January 16, 1955, and lived there until she moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

in 1972. That same year, Karr started at

Macalester College Macalester College () is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 2,174 students in the fall of 2018 from 50 U.S. states, four U.S te ...

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

, where she studied for two years and met poet Etheridge Knight, one of her first mentors.Almon, Bert.
Karr, Mary 1955–.
American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, Supplement 11, edited by Jay Parini, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002, pp. 239-256. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Accessed 28 Jan. 2017. Karr later attended and graduated from

Goddard College Goddard College is a progressive education private liberal arts low-residency college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle, Washington. The college offers undergraduate and gra ...

, where she studied with the poets

Robert Hass Robert L. Hass (born March 1, 1941) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He won the 2007 National Book Award and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for the collection ''Time and Materials: Poems 1997 ...

and Stephen Dobyns. Karr was married to poet Michael Milburn for 13 years. At some point, she had a relationship with author

David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel '' Infinite Jest'', whi ...

. Karr spoke out about Wallace's abusive behaviour, which included years of stalking, throwing a coffee table at her, and harassing her five-year-old son. Although a convert to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, Karr supports views that are at odds with Catholic Church teaching: on abortion she is

pro-choice Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pr ...

, and she has spoken in favor of

women's ordination The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordina ...

to the priesthood. Karr has described herself as a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

since age 12.

Awards and honors

*1989

*1995 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for ''

'' *2005

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

Works

;Memoirs * ''The Liars' Club'', Viking Adult; (1995) * ''Cherry: A Memoir'', Penguin Books; Reissue edition (2001) * ''Lit: A Memoir'', HarperCollins; (2009) ;Poetry * ''Abacus'', Wesleyan (1987) * ''The Devil's Tour'', New Directions (1993) * ''Viper Rum'', Penguin (2001) * ''Sinners Welcome'', HarperCollins (2006) * ''Tropic of Squalor'', HarperCollins (2018) ;Stories
"Learner's Permit"
(excerpt from ''Cherry''). ''Nerve,'' w/o date. ;Non-Fiction *

References

External links

* *
Paris Review Interview

Mary Karr Author Page on harpercollins.com

Profile at The Whiting Foundation

Mary Karr, Remembering The Years She Spent 'Lit'
November 3, 2009,

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to ...

Mary Karr biography at enotes.com

NPR Interview with Karr for new poetry collection ''Sinners Welcome''

Rain Taxi Interview, Spring 2010

Mary Karr Talks 'Tropic of Squalor,' Grinding Through Drafts, and Cellos
The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara {{DEFAULTSORT:Karr, Mary 1955 births 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets 20th-century American women writers American women poets Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism Living people Roman Catholic writers Syracuse University faculty American women memoirists American memoirists People from Jefferson County, Texas Writers from Texas 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Catholics from Texas 21st-century American women writers Catholic feminists American women academics