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Picoult is the author of 13 books of fiction, including her latest, "The Tenth Circle," (published by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.) released earlier this month. Publisher's Weekly writes that "some of Picoult's best storytelling distinguishes her twisting, metaphor-rich 13th novel."
In "The Tenth Circle," Picoult presents a story in which there are only shades of gray – the black and white contrast offered in the form of drawings by Dustin Weaver, a young comic book artist. Picoult asked Weaver to help her illustrate the harrowing tale of a family in crisis.
Picoult's other novels also examine various types of relationships – those between spouses, those between friends and lovers, those between parents and children, and those between various generations of families. Those novels include "Songs of the Humpback Whale" (1992), "Harvesting the Heart" (1993), "Picture Perfect" (1995), "Mercy" (1996), "The Pact" (1998), "Keeping Faith" (1999), "Plain Truth" (2000), "Salem Falls" (2001), "Perfect Match" (2002), and three New York Times Best-Sellers, "Second Glance" (2003), "My Sister's Keeper" (2004), and "Vanishing Acts" (2005).
Both "The Pact" and "Plain Truth" were made into television movies for the Lifetime Network. Currently, "Keeping Faith" is under option with Lifetime, while "My Sister's Keeper" is in development with New Line Cinema. For her body of work, Picoult was awarded The New England Bookseller Award for Fiction in 2003.
Born and raised on Long Island, Picoult studied creative writing with Mary Morris at Princeton and had two short stories published in "Seventeen" magazine while still a student. After graduation, she held a number of different jobs – on Wall Street, at an ad agency, a textbook publisher, and as an eighth grade English teacher – before entering Harvard to pursue a master's degree in education.
She married Tim Van Leer, whom she had known at Princeton, and it was while she was pregnant with her first child that she wrote her first novel. She has been writing steadily ever since and now, she and her husband have three children ages 14, 12 and 10, and make their home in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Picoult joins an impressive group of authors who have spoken at previous Brady Author's Symposia, including Reynolds Price, Doris Betts, Lee Smith, Kay Gibbons, John Berendt, Pat Conroy, Gail Godwin, Ann Hood, Tim McLaurin, Frances Mayes, Rick Bragg, and Susan Vreeland. For more details or tickets, contact the Catawba College Public Relations Office at (704) 637-4393.
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