Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett Headshot

Writer

A famous name both to casual readers and to the literary elite, author Ann Patchett was born in Los Angeles, California in 1953. The daughter of author Jeanne Ray, Patchett soon felt drawn to a similar path, attending Sarah Lawrence College before enrolling at the prestigious Iowa Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa. After graduating, Patchett eventually took a job writing for Seventeen magazine, which she later described as a terrible work environment, fraught with dysfunction and poorly managed editors-though she later credited the experience for making her a strong nonfiction writer, able to deliver content in virtually any context or voice. Patchett published her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars in 1992, and the book was well received. Her next effort, 1994's Taft fared even better, winning the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. Still more accolades would come with her 2001 novel Bel Canto, which won the Orange Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the BookSense Book of the Year award. Her 2007 effort Run. was highly praised, as was her 2011 novel State of Wonder, which was shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize. She made a strong foray into nonfiction with her 2013 memoir This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, and her 2016 novel, Commonwealth kept up her streak of exceptional praise from critics and readers alike.

Credits

Today With Hoda & Jenna

Guest
Show
2019

Strahan & Sara

Guest
Show
2019

Late Night With Seth MeyersStream

Guest
Talk
2014

Well Read

Guest
Show
2012

Open Book

Guest
Show
2010

The Colbert Report

Guest
Talk
2005

CBS News Sunday Morning

Guest
News
1979

Canada AM

Guest
Show
1972