Julianna Baggott

"Few writers of the twenty-first century can rival the verve, the energy, and the sheer delight in language of Julianna Baggott."

- Madison Smartt Bell

Julianna Baggott received her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1994. Her first novel, Girl Talk, was published by Simon and Schuster's Pocket Books in February 2001. A national bestseller, Girl Talk was also published by six publishing houses overseas. Her collection of poems, This Country of Mothers, followed in April 2001 published by Southern Illinois University Press. Her second novel, The Miss America Family, was published by Pocket Books in April 2002 and hit the Boston Globe's Bestsellers List. Baggott's third novel, The Madam - based on the life of her grandmother who was raised in a house of prostitution in the twenties and thirties - was published in September 2003 from Atria Books, a division of Simon and Schuster, and was a Boston Herald book club selection.

Her collaboration with Steve Almond, Which Brings Me To You: A Novel in Confessions, was published by Algonquin this past spring and was chosen as a Best Book of 2006 by Kirkus Reviews. It's being followed by a new book of poems Lizzie Borden in Love: Poems in Women's Voices, Crab Orchard's Editors Selection for 2006, published by Southern Illinois University Press. Winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Series from Pleiades Press, her third collection of poetry, Compulsions of Silkworms and Bees, was published in March 2007, distributed by LSU Press.

Baggott's debut novel for kids, under the pen name N.E. Bode, The Anybodies, was published by HarperCollins in spring 2004 and was a Children's Book of Month Club selection, a Washington Post Book-of-the-Week, a Booksense selection, and a People Magazine book pick. The Nobodies followed in 2005 and then The Somebodies in 2006, which won a Gold Medal in the Florida Book Awards. She will publish The Slippery Map in the fall of 2007, as well as the prequel novel to Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, a movie starring Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, and Justin Bateman. The Prince of Fenway Park will be published during spring training of 2009. Julianna is signed on to write one more novel for HarperCollins. For more info: www.theanybodies.com.

In the fall of 2008, Julianna will publish My Husband's Sweethearts (Bantam Dell) under the pen name Bridget Asher. It's the first novel in a two-book deal. There will be more Bridget Asher info to come!

Her work has appeared Poetry, The Southern Review, Ms. Magazine, Glamour, TriQuarterly, Best American Poetry 2000, as well as read on NPR's "Here and Now" and "Talk of the Nation," and at Symphony Space. She broadcasts monthly hour-long specials in the voice of N.E. Bode, her pen name, on XMRadio, XMKids. She teaches at Florida State University's Creative Writing Program. She lives in Florida with her husband, writer David G.W. Scott, and their four young children.