Ann Patchett

American novelist.
Date of Humanities Series Lecture: 15 March, 2006.

Patchett has written five novels: The Patron Saint of Liars (1992); Taft (1994); The Magician's Assistant (1997); Bel Canto (2001); and Run (2007). She has also written one memoir Truth and Beauty: A Friendship (2004). Of Bel Canto Alex Clark observed in the Guardian:

Electrifying. With bravura confidence and inventiveness shevaries her pace to encompass both lightning flashes of brutality and terror and long stretches of incarcerated ennui. The novel’s sensibilities extend from the sly wit of observational humour to subtle, mournful insights into the nature of yearning and desire.

Patchett received the PEN/Faulkner Award for Bel Canto in 2002. The novel also brought her the Orange Prize, awarded only to women writing in English. In addition to Bel Canto being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, it was named the Book Sense Book of the Year. Truth & Beauty was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the Chicago Tribune's Heartland Prize, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association. 

Read more about Patchett from Literature Online.