Laurie Halse Anderson by Larry D. Moore. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (accessed: December 15, 2021).
Laurie Halse Anderson
, b. 1961
Laurie Halse Anderson was born in 1961, in Potsdam, Northern New York State, the daughter of Rev. Frank A. Halse Jr. and Joyce Holcomb Halse. Her father was a Methodist minister at Syracuse University, and her mother worked in management. Both parents wrote poetry and instilled a love for storytelling in their children. Anderson describes her father as a talented storyteller, and recounts sneaking downstairs after bedtime as a child to listen to him, commenting that “he always told the best stories when he thought that I was sleeping.” She credits her mother’s indulgence in her avid reading as a child for her continued love of literature. From the second grade, she began writing after she was taught haiku, and it was her love of books that became her solace when at the age of thirteen, her father lost his position as Chaplain at Syracuse University. Anderson’s teenaged years were consequently difficult, since the family became impoverished, her father suffered from depression, and the family unit broke down. High school was also difficult, as her family’s financial situation was evident in her clothing and impacted her social acceptance. As a senior in high school, Anderson participated in an exchange student program, and spent time in Denmark, living on a pig farm and learning to speak Danish.
She studied for a Bachelor’s degree in Languages and Literature, and graduated from Georgetown University in 1984. While studying, Anderson married her first husband, Gregory Anderson, with whom she shares two daughters. She married her second husband, Scott Larrabee, in 2005 and is stepmother to his two children.
Anderson began her writing career as a freelance reporter and wrote fiction as a hobby. Her first book was Ndito Run, released in 1996, which was followed in the same year by Turkey Pox. During the early years of her writing career, she supplemented her income by writing non-fiction books. Anderson often tackles subjects of difference, emotional trauma, and becoming. Anderson has stated that she writes young adult fiction “because after a wonderful childhood, my nuclear family had a nuclear meltdown. The fallout poisoned us for decades.” To-date she has written over thirty books, including historical fiction, young adult literature, and fiction and non-fiction for young readers, and has received several major literary awards. In 2009, she was awarded the ALA Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contribution to young adult literature. Her novel Speak received the Golden Kite Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was runner-up for the Michael L. Printz Award and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.
Sources:
Official website (accessed: May 29, 2018).
Laurie Halse Anderson Acceptance Speech, 2009 Winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award. "Young Adult Literary Services Association" (accessed: July 2, 2018).
Current biography (Bio Ref Bank) at the EBSCOhost website (accessed: July 2, 2018).
Authors and Artists for Young Adults 84, Gale, 2010 (accessed: May 29, 2018).
Bio prepared by Kylie Constantine, University of New England, kconstan@myune.edu.au and Marguerite Johnson, The University of Newcastle, marguerite.johnson@newcastle.edu.au
Records in database:
