Anne Lamott Biography
Anne Lamott (b. 1954 in San Francisco) is the author of several novels and works of non-fiction, and a progressive political activist. She is also an acclaimed public speaker and teacher of writing. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, her non-fiction works are largely autobiographical, with strong doses of self-deprecating humor. Marked by their transparency, Lamott's writings covered such subjects as alcoholism, single motherhood, and Christianity.
Lamott has explained: "I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, families, secrets, wonder, craziness — and that can make me laugh. When I am reading a book like this, I feel rich and profoundly relieved to be in the presence of someone who will share the truth with me, and throw the lights on a little, and I try to write these kinds of books. Books, for me, are medicine."
Lamott is a graduate of Drew School in San Francisco, California. Her father, Kenneth Lamott, was also a writer and was the basis of her first novel Hard Laughter. She has one son, Sam, who was born in 1990.
Lamott's life is documented in Freida Lee Mock's 1999 documentary Bird by Bird with Annie: A Film Portrait of Writer Anne Lamott. Because of the documentary and her following on Facebook and other online networks, she is often called the "People's Author".
Lamott is cited as a writer who captures well the style of narrative nonfiction called "particularism", coined by Howard Freeman.
This biography was last updated on 02/25/2010.
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