Beyond the Book: Background information when reading Charity Girl

Beyond the Book

This article relates to Charity Girl

Michael Lowenthal is the author of the novels Charity Girl (2007), Avoidance (2002) and The Same Embrace (1998). His short stories have appeared in Tin House, the Southern Review, the Kenyon Review, and Witness, and have been widely anthologized. Three of his stories have received "Special Mention" in Pushcart Prize anthologies. He has also written nonfiction for the New York Times Magazine, Boston Magazine, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Out, and many other publications.

Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as an editor for University Press of New England, where he founded the Hardscrabble Books imprint, publishing such authors as Chris Bohjalian, W.D. Wetherell, and Ernest Hebert. He studied English and comparative religion at Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1990 as class valedictorian.

He now lives in Boston, where he teaches creative writing at Boston College and in the low-residency MFA program at Lesley University, and serves on the Executive Board of PEN New England.

Interesting Links:
An archive of American Social Hygiene Posters at the University of Minnesota including catchy posters such as:

• "Not in line of duty"
• "Go back to them physically fit and morally clean"
• "Will you be a free man or chained"

Filed under

This "beyond the book article" relates to Charity Girl. It originally ran in January 2007 and has been updated for the January 2008 paperback edition. Go to magazine.