Laura Malfere - Biography of Jodi Picoult: Best-selling Author and Writer of Sing You Home and Lone Wolf

Jodi Picoults career began with DC Comics Wonder Woman series, and she has since become one of the world's best known authors. Her first novel, Nineteen Minutes , s hot to the number one position on the New York Times Bestsellers List when it was published in 2007, and a no-less-impressive body of work has since followed.

Picoult was born in Nesconset, Long Island to two non-practising Jewish parents. Even at a very young age, Picoult demonstrated her love for writing and wrote a story titled The Lobster Which Misunderstood . Aged thirteen years old, she moved from Nesconset to New Hampshire and continued to demonstrate her love for writing throughout her high school years.

Picoult's academic prowess was noted by the admissions team at Princeton University, where she began studying writing in 1984, graduating in 1987. During her time at university, she had two articles published in Seventeen magazine, giving her the perfect platform for moving on to her work with DC Comics. After her graduation, Picoult began teaching eighth grade English and edited textbooks as an additional source of income, while working towards her M.A. in education at Harvard University.

It wasn't until 2008 that Picoult really began to find success with her writing. Her first book, Nineteen Minutes , garnered wide critical acclaim, but it was her second bestseller, Change of Heart, that really earned her fame as a writer. The book tells the story of a murderer on death row who wishes to donate his heart to a relative of one of his victims after he has died. As her second book was emotionally engaging as the first, Picoult's reputation for writing in-depth, accurate books spread across the world.

Like many writers, Picoult chooses to create her books based on what she experiences in real life. For Change of Heart, she visited death row, gas chambers and spoke with condemned men, all to get a feel for what life was really life for the man who would be her main character.

In Change of Heart , Picoult managed to achieve something that many controversial writers before her have failed to do: she invoked sympathy for a guilty man on death row. The New York Times described her as dramatizing " ... an argument fit for a debating team " through her courtroom dramas.

Although Picoult's platform to fame was laid in part by the fact that the New York Times promoted her work, she did not hide her views on the newspapers usual approach to authors. In 2010, the Guardian reported her tweet against the New York Times , claiming that the paper " favored white male literary darlings " when it came to the literature it praised. Although the Times responded by saying that Picoults attack stemmed from a poor review by one of their regular bloggers, Picoult did not back down on her opinions, demonstrating just how dedicated she is to bettering all genres of literature.

Jodi Picoult was born in 1966 to Myron Michel Picoult, a securities analyst on Wall Street, and Jane Ellen Friend Picoult, a local nursery school teacher. For the first thirteen years of her life, she grew up in the small town of Nesconset, New York. Jodi attended school in the Smithtown Central school district, which has given birth to many other famous American talents, including baseball players ( Frank Catalanotto , Jim Mecir ), and television personalities ( Jai Rodriguez , Soledad O'Brien ) . It was while attending kindergarten there that Picoult wrote her first piece, The Lobster Who Misunderstood .

In 1979, Picoults family moved to New Hampshire. Picoult is very open about the happy existence that her family had there, and admits that she has not lived a life that is anywhere near as tragic as that of her characters. She describes her upbringing as " well-adjusted, " and states that she did not have to live the life of those who she writes about in her fictional pieces.

Picoult chose to go to Princeton university after she graduated from high school in 1984. While there, she studied writing and met her husband, a fellow Princetonian. A fellow alumni, Mary Morris, saw Picoults talent for writing and encouraged her to submit her stories to Seventeen Magazine . The famous magazine published two of her pieces, spurring Picoult to work towards establishing a career in writing.

Upon graduating from Princeton in 1987, Picoult worked several different jobs before she began her real journey as a writer. Her chosen lines of work after graduation included being a technical writer for a Wall Street brokerage firm, an eighth grade English teacher, and an editor for a textbook publisher. She pursued a Masters degree at Harvard University, married her Princeton sweetheart Tim Van Leer, and went on to have three children with Tim: Sammy, Kyle, and Jake.

While pregnant with her first child, Picoult chose to write her first novel, Songs of the Humpback Whale . The novel displayed the trademark themes inherent in Picoult's more recent texts, including child abuse and women living in the shadow of men.

Prior to becoming a bestselling author, Picoult had success with DC comics. She established herself as the writer of Wonder Woman after fellow author Allan Hienburgh left the comic in 2007. Although her time writing for DC comics lasted only four months,

Picoult placed her mark on the 60-year-old heroine. She began her time at DC comics feeling as though Wonder Woman had been dumbed down for the male audience who lusted after her, and the female audience who wished to identify with her. She spent her time at the publication attempting to give extra strength to the character she wrote for.

Picoult requested that straps be added to Wonder Womans bustier, but her suggestion was politely turned down. Picoult then took a different angle to strengthening the character; she chose to endow her with a little more intelligence, and created stories that allowed Wonder Woman to rescue the guys, rather than being helped by them. When she left DC Comics, Picoult felt as though Wonder Woman was " ... headed in the right direction .

Picoult's literary successes in novels appeared to dwindle for the next decade, during which she gave birth, but this was only due to her change in approach to the characters she wanted to represent. Picoult described herself as taking a more maternal and empathetic approach toward those she wanted to write about, and it was from this point that she began researching her books intricately.

Picoult's first heartbreaking novel, Nineteen Minutes , tells the story of a child who goes on a nineteen minute rampage with a handgun, killing his classmates. It is a brave and poignant introspection of a character, as it focuses on an angle that is rarely broadcast across news channels. Rather than chastising her main character, Picoult examines whether things could have been different for him had he not been bullied, or if his father had noticed the problems he was having in school. Picoult's talent for making her readers sympathize with criminals has greatly contributed to her success as a novelist.

It helps that Picoult has an uncanny knack for meticulous research. As a writer, one of her pet peeves is calling other authors out in their inaccuracies. During research for her own books, she accumulates file upon file of primary evidence for the story lines. Aside from visiting prisoners on death row and talking to condemned men, Picoult has has spent time with people from many other walks of life.

She has successfully scheduled interviews with the head of launch operations at NASA, has visited Amish farmers, and has learned the ins and outs of Wicca love spells and DNA testing procedures. It seems that no task is too heavy when it comes to ensuring that her pieces are accurate.