Lorrie Moore Biography

American novelist, born in Glen Falls, New York, educated at St Lawrence College and Cornell University; she then taught English at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Her first book, Self-Help (1985), was a collection of stories characterized by their wit, polish, and experimental zeal; Moore employs the title's reference to pop psychology as a metaphor and thematic link between her stories. Her first novel, Anagrams (1987), looked at one woman's life from a variety of perspectives and parallel narrative strategies. Her second collection of stories, Like Life (1992), which focuses on the difficulties of male-female relationships, is distinguished by its unusual themes, settings, and imagery (which verges on the surreal). Her second novel, Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? (1995), is the story of a woman's adolescence, marriage, and relationships with other women, told mostly in flashback. Simple but subtle in execution, it displays, in its brief span, the skill and maturity of her best stories.