Author Profile: Jodi Picoult
- Catherine Moscatt
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Author: Jodi Picoult
My Favorite Books:
19 Minutes (about a bullied boy who shoots up his school killing some and injuring many)
Mad Honey (about a boy who is accused of killing his girlfriend after he realizes she is transgender)
Keeping Faith (kind of similar to Stephen King’s Green Mile where a prisoner is accused of a heinous act but then it appears they can do miracles)
Plain Truth (an English lawyer is hired to defend an Amish (or “Plain”) person accused of killing their newborn baby)
Salem Falls (a bunch of girls falsy accuse their teacher of sexual assault)
A Spark of Light (a Planned Parenthood gets shot up)
Upcoming Books (if any):
Hollow Bones (a woman, who runs the Rhode Island Department for Emergency Preparedness and Response and who lost her mother during the 9/11 is pregnant with her own child)
She has been awarded:
She is ranked “top ten” of Princeton’s influential living alumni. They have a lot to be proud of.
She was the 2019 Hale Award Recipient, The award is named for Sarah Josephina Hale, author of hundreds of poems who shaped woman in the 19th century.
She was awarded the New England Bookseller for Fiction
A lifetime achievement award for mainstream fiction from the Romance Writers of America (some of her books do have romance and they do certainly have sex but its not a theme usually)
She holds the NH Literary Award for Outstanding Literary Merit
In 2024, she was awarded the 2024 Free Speech Defender Robbie Harris Author Award for the Coalition Against Censorship
Fact: - Her book 19 Minutes is the most banned book in the United States. I’m not sure why that is. Maybe people worry it will inspire copycats? I read it was banned because of violence (which many other books have), sexual assault and the word “erection” I fail to see what makes this book so much worse than all the other books that have the same thing.
Further Achievements:
She has published 29 novels and her 30th is slotted to come out October 2026
Her books have been translated in forty languages
She co-wrote two books (Between the Lines and Off the Page) with her daughter Samantha Van Leer which was adapted into a musical Between the Lines. She is also co-librettist of the musical.
An Indiana school was prepared to do the play and they were all set to perform when the school board cancelled it because one parent complained about an LGBTQ character which wasn’t even in this adaptation of the script.
She is co-librettist of a musical called Breathe and a musical adaptation of The Book Thief
She has three children, two grandchildren
Fun Fact: I did not like My Sister’s Keeper which might be one of her most iconic books. I had to read it in middle school and I think the problem was I read it too young. First of all there were a couple of sex scenes which (because of my OCD) always made me really uncomfortable. I was too young to appreciate the nuances Picoult used, especially when switching POV. I have read every book by Picoult. I’m due to rereading that one again.
Quotes from Jodi:
“I don't believe in writer's block. Think about it - when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn't it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer's block is having too much time on your hands.’
‘There's that unwritten schism that literary writers get all the awards and commericals writers get all the success’
‘You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.’
‘When you're stuck, and sure you've written absolutely garbage, force yourself to finish and then decide to fix or scrap it - or you will never know if you can.’
‘I will say overwhelmingly what means so much more to me than the opinion of one reviewer are the letters I get from fans who tell me how a particular book has changed their life’
I dream one day that I can accomplish that.
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