Lisa Alther

writer

Lisa Alther graduated from Wellesley College with a BA in English literature in 1966. After attending the Publishing Procedures Course at Radcliffe College and working for Atheneum Publishers in New York, she taught Southern Fiction at St. Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont. Alther is the author of five novels -- *Kinflicks*, *Original Sins,* *Other Women*, *Bedrock* and *Five Minutes in Heaven*. Each has appeared on bestseller lists worldwide. The first three novels were featured selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and the five novels combined have sold over six million copies. A novella entitled *Birdman of the Dancer*, based on a series of monotypes by the French artist Francoise Gilot, has been published in Holland, Denmark and Germany. Alther's reviews and articles have appeared in many periodicals, including the *New York Times*, *Art and Antiques*, *Los Angeles Times*, *Boston Globe*, *Washington Post*, *San Francsico Chronicle*, *Natural History*, *New Society* and the *Guardian*. One of Alther's stated aims is to portray the human reality behind cultural stereotypes, particularly those regarding women. She often deals with such material in a humorous fashion, reviewers in both the *New York Times* Book Review and *The Nation* having written that she possesses "comic genius".