Anita Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts (just outside of Boston), the eldest of three daughters. Early literary influences include Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton and everything Eugene O'Neill ever wrote. After graduating from Tufts University, she taught high school for a number of years in and around Boston. In the middle of her last year, she quit to start writing.
Joking that she could wallpaper her bathroom with rejections from magazines for her short stories, she published her early work in literary journals. One of these stories, "Past the Island Drifting," won an O.Henry prize. Despite this accolade, she quickly learned that one couldn't make a living on writing short fiction. Switching to journalism, Shreve traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, where she lived for three years, working as a journalist for an African magazine. One of her novels, The Last Time They Met, contains bits and pieces from her time in Africa.
Returning to the United States, Shreve was a writer and editor for a number of magazines in New York. Later, when she began her family, she turned to freelancing, publishing in the New York Times Magazine, New York magazine and dozens of others. In 1989, she published her first novel, Eden Close. Since then, she has written 12 novels, among them are The Weight of Water, The Pilot's Wife, The Last Time They Met, A Wedding in December and Body Surfing. Her most recent work is entitled Rescue: a novel.
In 1999, she received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey and The Pilot's Wife became the 25th selection of Oprah's Book Club and an international bestseller. In April 2002, CBS aired the film version of The Pilot's Wife starring Christine Lahti and in the fall of 2002, The Weight of Water starring Elizabeth Hurley and Sean Penn, was released in movie theatres.
Shreve is married to a man she met when she was 13. She had two children and three stepchildren.
READ-A-LIKES
Sue Miller - Readers who enjoy the provocative, issue-oriented stories of women's lives that Shreve tells, might enjoy the work of Sue Miller. Try The World Below for strong characterizations and story lines in the past and the present.
Jodi Picoult - Another popular author that writes of women's issues in contemporary society, Picoult offers sensitive portrayals of her characters and explorations of life's intimacies, such as in the novel Plain Truth and others.
George Eliot - Readers who enjoy the sprawling feel of the 19th century often found in Shreve's works might enjoy Eliot's work entitled Middlemarch.
Kate Wilhelm - The style and approach of this author might also appeal to the fans of Shreve's work. Particularly interesting is the novel entitled The Deepest Water that holds parallels to Shreve's novel entitled Resistance.
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