Capturing 'moments' in individual lives

“A story is a kind of biopsy of human life. A story is both local, specific, small, and deep, in a kind of penetrating, layered, and revealing way.” – Lorrie Moore

Marie Lorena “Lorrie” Moore was born on this date in 1958 in Upstate New York.  Primarily a fiction writer who started writing and winning awards as a teenager, she is perhaps best known for her humorous and poignant short stories like the O’Henry Award-winning "People Like That Are the Only People Here."   The story of a young child falling sick is loosely patterned after her own childhood experiences.

Moore is a recipient of the Rea Award for the Short Story, given to a writer who has made ''a significant contribution to the short story form.'' The award, which includes a major cash prize, was set up to encourage short story writing and is given annually to a living American writer.   Among her story collections are Like Life and Birds of America.   Her story ''You're Ugly Too,'' was chosen for ''The Best American Short Stories of the Century,'' edited by John Updike.

Currently a professor at Vanderbilt University, Moore                      

also has written several novels, including the thought-provoking and thoughtful A Gate at the Stairs, and the terrific children’s book The Forgotten Helper.  She also writes about books, films, and television for The New York Review of Books. 

  

“Writing,” she said, “has to be an obsession.  It's only for those who say, 'I'm not going to do anything else.'“ 

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