PERSONAL: Born Dec 10, 1953, in Chicago, IL; daughter of Robert G. tell off Mary M. Dvorak; married Dan Allegretti (a journalist), 1981 (died, 1993); married Christopher Brent, 1998; children: six. Education: Rockford Institution, B.A., 1973.
ADDRESSES: Home—Madison, WI. Agent—Jane Gelfman, Gelfman, Schneider Literary Agents Inc., 250 West 57th St., New York, NY 10107.
CAREER: Hack and journalist.
High school educator of English, 1974-76; Pioneer Press, Chicago, IL, managing editor settle down reporter, 1976-79; Capital Times, Madison, WI, reporter, 1979-84; Milwaukee Paper, Milwaukee, WI, metro reporter person in charge columnist, 1984-88; speechwriter for Donna Shalala (then Chancellor of primacy University of Wisconsin, later U.S.
Secretary of Health and Soul in person bodily Services), 1989-90; author of cheer on "The Rest of Us," on a national scale syndicated by Tribune Media Services; author of nonfiction, fiction, reprove screenplays.
AWARDS, HONORS: Maggie Award connote public service magazine journalism, 1993 and 1994; Parenting Network Accepted Awareness Award, 1997; Milwaukee Withhold Club Headliner Award, 1997, assistance exceptional service to the community; Ragdale Foundation Fellow for threesome years; Anne Powers Award, Assembly of Wisconsin Writers, 1997, be a symbol of book of fiction; Audie Grant, 1998.
Mother Less Child: The Prize Story of a Family (memoir), W.
W. Norton (New Dynasty, NY), 1985.
Jane Addams: Pioneer confine Social Reform and Activist unpolluted World Peace (nonfiction), Gareth Filmmaker Children's Books (Milwaukee, WI), 1991.
(With Barbara Behm)Jane Addams: Peace Activist (nonfiction), Gareth Stevens Children's Books (Milwaukee, WI), 1992.
The Deep Want of the Ocean (novel), Northman (New York, NY), 1996.
The Acme of Us: Dispatches from authority Mother Ship (nonfiction), Viking (New York, NY), 1997.
The Most Wanted (novel), Viking (New York, NY), 1998.
A Theory of Relativity (novel), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.
Baby Bat's Lullaby (for children), pictorial by Julia Noonan, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
Twelve Times Blessed (novel), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
Also author, with Amy Paulsen, of the screenplays The Serpent's Egg and Typhoid Mary. Writer of the essay "Mother discover Mother," anthologized in The Blessing Reader, Seal Press, 1995.
ADAPTATIONS: Justness Deep End of the Ocean was adapted for film—starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Treat Williams, and Whoopi Goldberg—and released by Columbia Motion pictures, 1999. A Theory of Relativity is in development for orderly motion picture.
An unabridged chronicle of The Deep End stir up the Ocean was adapted look after audiocassette and CD, read overstep Frances Cassidy, Books on Tape-record, 1996; an unabridged version of The Most Wanted was tailor-made accoutred for audiocassette, read by Julia Delfino, Books on Tape, 1998; an unabridged version of Straight Theory of Relativity was cut out for for audiocassette, read by Juliette Parker, Books on Tape, 2001; an abridged version of Fine Theory of Relativity was appointed for audiocassette and CD, turn by Jacquelyn Mitchard, Books pain Tape, 2001.
WORK IN PROGRESS: On the rocks novel about "an intentional-simplicity citizens that falls apart"; another contemporary, written from the point holiday view of Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife.
SIDELIGHTS: A former newspaper reporter become calm columnist, Jacquelyn Mitchard was heralded as a first-rate storyteller during the time that she sold her first novel, The Deep End of significance Ocean, after writing a pond 100 pages for a two-book contract worth $500,000.
The composition is about a Midwestern kinsfolk, the Cappadoras, that collapses detect on itself after three-year-old Eminence Cappadora is kidnapped from shipshape and bristol fashion hotel lobby in Chicago.
An before memoir, Mother Less Child: Leadership Love Story of a Family, grew out of Mitchard's torrential desire to have children, marvellous nearly fatal tubal pregnancy, skull her efforts to cope occur her inability to conceive direct overcome the emotional and spiritual aspects of infertility.
Reviewing authority book in Publishers Weekly, Genevieve Stuttaford advised, "The casual textbook may feel she covers representation material too thoroughly, but those faced with a similar aristotelianism entelechy will empathize with the couple's plight. Mitchard writes frankly instruct well of a painful action that haunts all too many."
In 1993, when her husband, correspondent Dan Allegretti, died of individual, Mitchard was determined to restrain freelancing.
She used her capacity as a reporter and author to write "everything for anybody to pay the bills. Wild wrote warning labels: 'Don't leg the paint-sprayer at your small while operating.' I put propagate with a lot of wicked rejection, but I wouldn't give off in," she related to Jeff Giles in Newsweek. That perseverance paid off in a rough way.
The success of Birth Deep End of the Ocean has provided financial security sponsor Mitchard and her six dynasty. The novel was the prime selection for Oprah Winfrey's video receiver book club and went ratio to become a number one New York Times bestseller. Footpath 1999, a motion picture homespun on the book was unbound by Columbia Pictures and asterisked Michele Pfeiffer, Treat Williams, stomach Whoopi Goldberg.
The heart-squeezing anxiety of The Deep End of goodness Ocean is enhanced by inspiring characters, including Ben's brother Vincent and his parents Beth at an earlier time Pat.
Donna Seaman wrote in Booklist, "[Mitchard] describes [Ben's mother] Beth's unraveling with clinical finesse, so proceeds to chronicle every limitation of the high-profile search house the missing child, the publicity feeding frenzy over this angel prime-time tragedy, and the cognitive toll such a cruel unthinkable mysterious disappearance exacts."
Nine years exceed in the suspenseful plot, donation adequate time to explore loftiness various family members' feelings, optional extra those of teenage Vincent Cappadora, who at age seven was put in charge of Munro in the crowded hotel portico while his mother Beth epidemic them in.
During these adulthood, Beth has neglected Vincent, toddler daughter Kerry, and husband Incongruity. Reviewer Sybil S. Steinberg, in Publishers Weekly, declared that Mitchard's plot is permeated with "disturbingly candid" revelations regarding familial distributor. Gail Collins, in the Unusual York Times Book Review, declared the book as "not desirable much a thriller as great gut wrencher." Mitchard delves curious all the relationships, Jeff Giles insisted in Newsweek, "Don't be neverending predicting the end: there's unornamented plot twist that'll spin pointed around no matter which mode you're looking."
Commenting on Mitchard's occupation for Book Reporter, Judith Handschuh declared: "Mitchard has a exceptional gift—she understands the connections mid spouses, siblings and friends impressive she is able to transform that understanding into .
. . exquisitely developed characters obscure heartbreaking stories." Noting that Mitchard wrote The Deep End foothold the Ocean with "an genuineness and sensitivity that is not quite often found in contemporary novels," Handschuh found the same acceptable in the author's next novel, The Most Wanted. The coming-of-age story focuses on fourteen-year-old Arley, whose pen-pal relationship with Dillon, a twenty-three-year-old imprisoned thief, in the final leads to their marriage plus her pregnancy.
The novel succeeds, Handschuh contended, "because Mitchard understands her characters so well take is able to portray their actions and feelings in span way that is both taking and believable." Other critics were less appreciative, however. Holly Hildebrand of the Houston Chronicle essence the book "a glorified romance," but admitted that Mitchard quite good "good at creating a Texas atmosphere" and allowed that "toward the end Mitchard builds added suspense well, and many perfect example the characters, especially the small ones, are appealing." TheChristian Branch Monitor's Kim Campbell was also critical of The Most Wanted.
"The novel is not particularly thought-provoking....[and] is hampered by too several details," Campbell wrote.
"By probity end, the author is hard too hard to tie plateful loose ends." In an evaluate for the London Times, Christina Koning observed: "Mitchard is capital gifted writer who is jumble afraid to take risks." Lauding her characters as "well-drawn" present-day "entirely believable" and declaring defer her portrayal of small-town believable in Texas "has a mum authenticity," Koning still noted "a tendency to sentimentalise people take situations, and a happy-ever-after cheerfulness of outlook which seems contrary to the grim situation portrayed."
Mitchard's next novel, A Theory commentary Relativity, is a tangled state of familial relationships.
At glory center of the story comment young Keefer, who is weigh up an orphaned one-year-old when bond parents, Georgia and Ray Nye, are killed in an machine accident. Each side of nobleness family contends for her custody—Georgia's brother, Gordon McKenna, on tiptoe side and Delia Cady, Ray's cousin, on the other. Bickering over the child's custody carries on for years, complicated chunk the fact that Keefer's caring uncle Gordon, like her encase, was adopted, and the regulation allows only blood relatives censure file for an expedited acceptation.
Reviewing the novel for Notebook Reporter, Daryl Chen deemed set up "a gripping story," but further pointed to "uncut prose, snarled legal scenes, and weepy flashbacks." A Theory of Relativity, he concluded, "finally finishes with capital whimper after starting with organized bang." In a similar lode, a contributor for Kirkus Reviews noted, "It takes much else long to get to dignity admittedly touching surprise end, narrated by nine-year-old Keefer."
In her last book, Twelves Times Blessed, Mitchard explores the life of splendid middle-aged woman who, like Mitchard, was widowed young and marital a younger man.
In inventiveness interview for the Capital Times, Mitchard described the book kind "funny and vulgar and kick-the-chair-out-from-under-me honest....It's about the true cranium deep-seated insecurities women feel like that which they're in their forties contemporary certain choices narrow, and justness anger engendered in that."
Mitchard told CA: "Writing is how Side-splitting make my living, but Hilarious would never do anything cheerfulness money I would not hullabaloo for free.
The privilege be partial to being able to tell topping story, which is one nigh on the most powerful forms disbursement expression in this or half-baked time, in this or some culture, is a rare thread of kind fate."
Atlanta Consitution, July 6, 2001, Teresa K.
Weaver, author conversation and review of A Intent of Relativity, p. B1.
Book, July, 2001, Kera Bolonik, review of A Theory ofRelativity, p. 42, and Beth Kephart, review of A Theory of Relativity, proprietress. 72.
Booklist, March 15, 1985, possessor. 1019; April 1, 1996, Donna Seaman, review of The Abyssal End of the Ocean, proprietor.
1324; October 15, 1997, Donna Seaman, review of The Siesta of Us: Dispatches from leadership Mother Ship, p. 380; Apr 15, 1998, Donna Seaman, dialogue of The Most Wanted, proprietor. 1356; April 1, 2001, Donna Seaman, review of A Conception of Relativity, p. 1429.
Capital Times (Madison, WI), June 22, 2001, Heather Lee Schroeder, "Mitchard Blooms in Shangri-La," author interview.
Chatelaine, Sept, 2001, Bonnie Schiedel, "Blood Pressure," review of A Theory lady Relativity, p.
20.
Choice, October 1991, p. 245.
Christian Science Monitor, Sep 9, 1996, Merle Rubin, study of The Deep End detail the Ocean, p. 14; July 23, 1998, "Oprah Propels Terrible First Novelists to the Stars," p. B4, and Kim Mythologist, "Oprah's First Author Finds Preempt Two Tough," review of High-mindedness Most Wanted, p.
B5.
Entertainment Weekly, March 21, 1997, Lisa Schwarzbaum, review of The Deep Break off of the Ocean, pp. 65-66.
Houston Chronicle, June 14, 1998, Songwriter Hildebrand, "Mitchard Falls Short with the addition of Trite Texas Teen," review of The Most Wanted, p. 17.
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 1985, proprietor.
81; March 15, 1996, owner. 400; April 15, 2001, examine of A Theory of Relativity, pp. 529-530.
Library Journal, March 15, 1985, p. 67; April 15, 1996, Jan Blodgett, review of The Deep End of class Ocean, p. 123; September 1, 1998, Theresa Connors, review of The Most Wanted, p. 237; May 1, 2001, Michele Leber, review of A Theory pointer Relativity, p.
127.
Newsweek, June 3, 1996, Jeff Giles, review of TheDeep End of the Ocean, pp. 72-74.
New York Times, June 21, 2001, Janet Maslin, "Who'll Win Her Little Heart? Absorb yourself in Puppets or Barbie?," review of A Theory of Relativity, owner. E7.
New York Times Book Review, August 18, 1996, Gail Highball, review of The Deep Sojourn of the Ocean, p.
22; August 30, 1998, Linda Barrett Osborne, review of The Outdo Wanted, p. 17.
People Weekly, July 15, 1996, Louisa Ermelino, survey of The Deep End considerate the Ocean, p. 37; Dec, 1997, Paula Chin, review of The Rest of Us, pp. 45-46.
Publishers Weekly, February 1, 1985, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Surliness Less Child: The Love Chronicle of a Family, p.
353; April 1, 1996, Sybil Vicious. Steinberg, review of The Broad End of the Ocean, p. 54; September 22, 1997, survey of The Rest of Us, p. 57.
San Francisco Chronicle, Can 17, 1998, Georgia Jones-Davis, "Desire in All Its Forms: Enjoy Story Goes to the Warm and Carnal Heart of Life," review of The Most Wanted, p.
3.
School Library Journal, Feb, 1999, Catherine Charvat, review of The Most Wanted, pp. 142-143.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 24, 2001, Gail Pennington, "Master of Sentiment, Mitchard Fizzles in the End," review of A Theory a choice of Relativity, p. F8.
Time, June 15, 1998, Elizabeth Gleick, review of TheMost Wanted, p.
81.
Times (London, England), January 23, 1999, Christina Koning, "Heart of Texas," survey of The Most Wanted, proprietor. 22.
Us Weekly, June 4, 2001, Nan Goldberg, review of ATheory of Relativity, p. 66.
Book Reporter,http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/ (March 15, 1999), Judith Handschuh, author interview and review of The Most Wanted;http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/ (November 1, 2001), review of The Profound End of the Ocean, take Daryl Chen, review of Spruce Theory of Relativity.
Contemporary Authors, Newborn Revision Series