“When this novel-in-stories won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009, it was a victory for crotchety, unapologetic women everywhere, especially ones who weren’t, as Olive herself might have put it, spring chickens... Her small-town travails instantly became stand-ins for something much bigger, even universal.”
“The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century,” New York Times, July 8, 2024.
“The two characters that I have written who are older are Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton. It’s interesting because as I wrote them it was their character that was most important to me, and their age was simply a piece of that character. So even though I knew I was writing about older people I didn’t think about that in a way, except to make sure they were always who they were.”
I’m honored to have received the Eudora Welty Foundation Prize for 2023. and to be invited to give the Eudora Welty Prize Lecture at the Folger Library.
Honored that Lucy by the Sea has been shortlisted for this year's Rathbones Folio Prize for fiction! Congratulations to the nominees in all three categories.
“How can you overcome stage fright? Viv Groskop talks to award-winning writer and nominee for this year’s Booker Prize, Elizabeth Strout, ahead of the ceremony.… Elizabeth tells Viv how the spaces that allow her to write are the ones in which she’s not needed by anyone. Riding the subway is good, but even better is her studio in Maine. ”
Viv Groskop, “Elizabeth Strout, Writer,” How to Own the Room (podcast), October 14, 2022.
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