The Modern Novel

Biography

Ann Beattie was born in 1947 in Washington D.C. She was an only child. Her father worked for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. She studied English at American University and then did a Master’s at the University of Connecticut. She was writing stories while doing her doctorate but dropped out to focus on her writing career. She initially had considerable success at story writing with many published in the New Yorker and then went on to publish novels. Apart from brief stints at the University of Virginia and Harvard, she has focused on her writing career. Her books have tended to concern people living on the East Coast of the United States who grew up in the 1960s and came of age in the 1970s which has meant that, while her books were successful in the 1970s and 1980s, they have seemed less relevant since that time.

Other links

Ann Beattie
The Boomers’ Roadmap (How Ann Beattie has helped a generation understand itself)
Featured Author: Ann Beattie