Mona Simpson (novelist)
| Mona Simpson | |
|---|---|
Simpson at the National Book Festival in January 2014
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| Born |
Mona Jandali June 14, 1957 Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education |
University of California, Berkeley Columbia University |
| Occupation | Novelist, English professor |
| Notable work |
Anywhere But Here (1986) The Lost Father (1992) A Regular Guy (1996) |
| Spouse(s) |
Richard Appel (m. 1993; div. ????) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) |
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| Relatives |
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| Website | www |
Mona Elizabeth Simpson (née Jandali; June 14, 1957) is an American novelist. She has written six novels and is a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Sadie Samuelson Levy Professor in Languages and Literature at Bard College.
She won a Whiting Award for her first novel, Anywhere but Here (1986). It was a popular success and adapted as a film by the same name, released in 1999. She wrote a sequel, The Lost Father (1992). Critical recognition has included the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and making the shortlist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for her novel Off Keck Road (2000).
Simpson is the younger sister of the late Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs (who was born before their parents married, and placed for adoption). Simpson was born after her parents had married and she did not meet Jobs until she was 25 years old.
Simpson's novels are fictional and drawn from life experiences. Her first novel, Anywhere But Here (1986), was a critical and popular success, winning a Whiting Award. In describing her intentions for the novel, Simpson stated:
I wanted to write about American mythologies, American yearnings that might be responses, delayed or exaggerated but in some way typical, to the political and social truths of our part of the world in our century. But I wrote very personally about one family. I think it takes a long time before a crisis—like AIDS—enters the culture to a point where responses exist in a character, where personal gestures are both individual and resonant in a larger way.
It was adapted as the 1999 film Anywhere But Here, starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. Simpson published a sequel, The Lost Father (1992). A Regular Guy (1996) explores the strained relationship of a Silicon Valley tycoon with a daughter born out of wedlock, whom he did not acknowledge.Off Keck Road (2000), portraying decades in the lives of three women in the Midwest, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. Stacey D'Erasmo said, "'Off Keck Road' marks the place where origin leaves off and improvisation begins".
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Wikipedia