She spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of fans of her work about her childhood, her time in Syracuse as a Syracuse University law student, why she believes fiction is important and her writing process.
'Olive Kitteridge' author Elizabeth Strout delivers final Gifford lecture of 2010 Emily Kulkus Syracuse.com/The Post-Standard December 22, 2010
Italian edition of Olive Kitteridge, published by Fazi.
200 Italian booksellers voted Olive Kitteridge and Elizabeth winner of the Premio Bancarella award in the medieval Piazza della Repubblica in Pontremoli, Italy. Elizabeth scored 100 votes of 187 cards received, surpassing the five other finalists books: Love SOS by Federica Bosco (Newton Compton) by 31 votes, The Box of Socks Lost by Vauro Senesi (Piemme) by 28 votes, The National Mean by Mimmo Gangemi (Einaudi) by 16 votes, The Murderess Leaves Something by Rose Mogliasso (Salani) by 7 votes, and Confession by Bill James (Seller) by five votes.
On May 30, Elizabeth was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from her alma mater, Bates College, at the college’s 144th commencement ceremony.
From the President’s Conferral:
Elizabeth Strout, your eye for the telling detail, your feel for the undercurrents of human relationships, and your ability to shape words into worlds that live vividly on the page have made you one of the outstanding novelists of our time. Therefore, by the authority vested in me by the Board of Trustees, I hereby confer upon you the degree Doctor of Letters, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities which here and everywhere pertain to this degree.
Read the full Citation and President’s Conferral ▸
A video of Elizabeth's remarks:
On the way to writing "Olive Kitteridge," the collection of linked stories that would win her a 2009 Pulitzer Prize, Elizabeth Strout made one of those intuitive leaps that show why the creation of fiction is such a mysterious enterprise.
Fiction Pulitzer Prize Winner Elizabeth Strout Talks Writing, 'Olive Kitteridge' Bob Thompson The Washington Post August 4, 2009
Elizabeth has won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel, Olive Kitteridge.
The citation reads: "For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life,"
Awarded to “Olive Kitteridge,” by Elizabeth Strout (Random House), a collection of 13 short stories set in small-town Maine that packs a cumulative emotional wallop, bound together by polished prose and by Olive, the title character, blunt, flawed and fascinating.
Lee C. Bollinger, President of Columbia University, presents the 2009 Fiction prize to Elizabeth Strout.
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