Alice Sebold

Alice Sebold was born in Madison, Wisconsin on September 6, 1963. She moves to Philadelphia as a child and grew up in suburbs outside of the city. As a child, her father taught Spanish at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sebold graduated from Syracuse University where she studied writing. After this, she moved to Manhattan and worked as a waitress while pursuing a professional writing career. However, finding little success she eventually left Manhattan for Southern California where she went on to become the caretaker for an artist community.

Her first book, Lucky (1999) is a fictionalized account of a rape that she suffered while a  college student. Sebold was able to testify against her rapist in court and he was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. The title comes from a police officer who told her on the night of her rape that she was lucky to be alive.

Sebold's second novel, 'The Lovely Bones' (2002) began as a story about the rape and murder of a teenage girl called 'Monsters'.

The book was an immediate success and made Sebold a household name.

Sebold's third novel, 'The Almost Moon' (2007) takes a slightly different tack but still holds to Sebold's unique, flowing writing style and dark themes. It is the story of an agoraphobic woman who spontaneously kills her mother.

Sebold has been the recipient of many awards including the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award for Adult Fiction in 2003 and the Bram Stoker Award in 2002.

She currently lives in San Francisco with her husband, the author Glen David Gold.