Lisa Alther
Lisa Alther (born July 23, 1944) is an American author and novelist. Personal life Alther was born in Kingsport, Tennessee in 1944. Her father was a surgeon, while her mother was a homemaker. She has 3 brothers and a sister. She graduated from Wellesley College with a B.A. in English literature in 1966. She then attended the Publishing Procedures Course at Radcliffe College. After graduation Alther worked briefly for Atheneum Publishers in New York before moving to rural Vermont. Alther wrote fiction steadily for years, without success, collecting more than 250 rejection slips without getting published. She was stubborn however, and determined to succeed. When she finally succeeded, with Kinflicks in 1975, the novel was phenomenally successful. Alther now divides her time among East Tennessee, Vermont, and New York City. She has one daughter. Career Alther is the author of six contemporary novels, Kinflicks, Original Sins, Other Women, Bedrock, Five Minutes In Heaven, and Swan Song, as well as a small number of published short stories and many magazine articles. She also wrote Washed in the Blood, a three-part historical novel concerning the earliest European settlement of the southern Appalachians. All of her novels include lesbian or bisexual women characters.