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Paula McLain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paula McLain
Portrait of Paula McClain reading at Fall for the Book
Portrait of Paula McClain reading at Fall for the Book
Born1965 (age 58–59)
Fresno, California, U.S.
OccupationNovelist
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of Michigan (MFA)
GenreLiterary fiction
Notable worksThe Paris Wife
Website
www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/features/paula_mclain/

Paula McLain (born 1965) is an American author best known for her novel, The Paris Wife, a fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage[1] which became a long-time New York Times bestseller.[2] She has published two collections of poetry, a memoir about growing up in the foster system, and the novel A Ticket to Ride.

Biography

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McLain was born in 1965 in Fresno, California. Her mother vanished when she was four, and her father was in and out of jail, leaving McLain and her sisters (one older, one younger) moving in and out of various foster homes for the next fourteen years,[3] an ordeal described "with a dispassionate grace that puts a human face, actually three human faces, on the alarming statistics" in her memoir, Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses[4] When she aged out of the system, she supported herself by working in various jobs before discovering she could write.[3] She received an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan and has been a resident of Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony as well as the recipient of fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Cleveland with her family.[5]

Bibliography

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Novels

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  • A Ticket to Ride (2008)
  • The Paris Wife (2011)
  • Circling the Sun (2015) (L'aviatrice en français)
  • Love and Ruin (2018)
  • When the Stars Go Dark (2021)

Nonfiction

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  • Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses (2003)

Poetry

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  • Less of Her (1999, New Issues Poetry Press)
  • Stumble, Gorgeous, (2005, New Issues Poetry Press)

References

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  1. ^ Lynn Neary (March 1, 2011). "'The Paris Wife' Dives Into Hemingway's First Big Love". NPR. Archived from the original on April 30, 2013. Retrieved April 26, 2013.
  2. ^ "Trade Paperback bestsellers". New York Times. May 5, 2013. Archived from the original on April 25, 2013. Retrieved April 26, 2013.
  3. ^ a b Paula McLain (February 2011). "The Mother I Never Had". Real Simple. Archived from the original on May 22, 2024. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  4. ^ Pat MacEnulty (June 22, 2003). "Love's Lost From Life In Foster Care". Sun Sentinel. Archived from the original on October 20, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2013.
  5. ^ "Paula McLain". HarperCollins US. Archived from the original on 9 June 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2014.