Wally Lamb

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Wally Lamb (born 17 October 1950) is the author of She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True. Both were featured as selections of Oprah's Book Club. Lamb is the recipient of the 1998 Governor’s Arts Award, State of Connecticut, a past recipient of the NEA grant for fiction and is a Missouri Review William Peden fiction prize winner.

He was the director of the Writing Center at the Norwich Free Academy, Norwich, Connecticut from 1989-1998, and is currently an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Connecticut’s English Department. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Education from the University of Connecticut and an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College. Lamb lives in Connecticut with his wife and three sons.

1 She's Come Undone
2 I Know This Much is True
3 Couldn't Keep it to Myself
4 Interviews
5 External Links

[edit] She's Come Undone

Lamb's first novel is the story of overweight Dolores Price. We follow her from the age of 13 into adulthood where she learns the importance of the love in people around her. This was Lamb's first #1 New York Times bestseller, She's Come Undone (Pocket Books; 1992) which also hit USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly and other national bestseller list. She's Come Undone was chosen as a finalist for the 1992 Los Angeles Times Book Awards’ Art Seidenbaum Prize for first fiction. It was named a notable book of the year by numerous publications, including The New York Times Book Review and People. The book was also chosen by the Oprah Winfrey Show as a "Book Club" selection in early 1997, and is one of the bestselling titles chosen for that honor.

[edit] I Know This Much is True

His second book, I Know This Much is True (ReganBooks), was released in June 1998. It is the story of the Birdsey twins, Thomas and Dominick. Dominick is a middle aged divorceè with a chip on his shoulder from his troubled life. His twin Thomas suffers from schizophrenia. He is paranoid, volatile, and lost in his own mind. This book chronicles their lives, explores the details and mysteries of their past, how and why they are where they are now. This book was also an Oprah Book Club selection.

[edit] Couldn't Keep it to Myself

Taking the role of editor, Lamb took several stories written by women in prison and compiled them into one book. Lamb has been volunteering at the prison for several years, and one of his students recently won the PEN/Newman's Own Award after overcoming attempts at censorship by the state of Connecticut.

[edit] Interviews

Zachary Chouteau, then of the American Booksellers Association, conducted an in-depth interview with Lamb shortly after his appearance on Oprah boosted him into the public spotlight http://bookweb.org/news/btw/archive/1134.html