Hi there!
I’m the author of 16 books (fiction and nonfiction) and have been "Dear Carol" at Girls' Life for 30 years. Next May, I’m leading a writing retreat in Bordeaux.
My first book, GIRLTALK: All the Stuff Your Sister Never Told You came out in a dozen languages. Click for VERY PERSONAL ESSAYS and HALL OF FAME PHOTOS. I’ve had 65+ Letters to the Editor in the New York Times on everything from Gabriel García Márquez to reading to kids to cats and inmates to being a lover of books. (Scroll.) I teach at the New York Society Library and you can find me on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. See?
SPEED OF LIFE came straight from the heart. TikTok. Julia Alvarez said: “You won’t want to put it down.” It’s now on Spotify. May I read you the first page? The New York Times called it "perceptive, funny and moving.” The critic wrote, “I laughed out loud and I teared up while reading this novel”—heck, I teared up reading that! Stars from Kirkus, School Library Journal, PW, Booklist. YALSA. New York Post: "Required Reading." Amazon—and Audible, Libro.fm. Speed of Life Discussion Guide.
AVA AND PIP, AVA AND TACO CAT, and AVA XOX are my funny diaries of a fifth grader who’s obsessed with palindromes. The New York Times calls it "a love letter to language" and "perfectly captures the complexities of sisterhood." Click here. My four Knopf novels include The Diary of Melanie Martin. Melanie and her brother, Matt the Brat, travel to Italy, Spain, Holland, and NYC.
Here’s how I got my start. Essays in Yale Alumni Magazine, Publishers Weekly, a Writer Experience podcast, and a recent interview.
Bio: Byram Hills HS in Armonk, NY; Twelfth grade in France (SYA); French/Spanish comp lit major at Yale (summa cum laude); M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury. I’ve been onToday, The View, Oprah, Squawk Box, NY1, Twin Cities Live, CNN Español…
My husband Rob Ackerman is a playwright and screenwriter who spent 25 years at SNL. The New Yorker liked Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson. New movie, Stargazer. Daughter Lizzi and her husband started Birch Benders pancake mix: Today Show, Forbes. Daughter Emme? We just celebrated her wedding!
