Lauren Kessler
Lauren Kessler is an American author, and immersion journalist who specializes in narrative nonfiction. She teaches storytelling for social change at the University of Washington and for the Forum of Journalism and Media in Vienna.
Kessler is the author of ten works of narrative nonfiction including A Grip of Time: When prison is your life, Raising the Barre: Big Dreams, False Starts and My Midlife Quest to Dance The Nutcracker ; Counterclockwise: My Year of Hypnosis, Hormones and Other Adventures in the World of Anti-Aging ; and My Teenage Werewolf: A Mother, A Daughter, A Journey Through the Thicket of Adolescence.
Her book, Dancing with Rose, won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and was named a Best Book of the Year by Library Journal. Her Oregon Book Award-winning book, Stubborn Twig, was chosen to be the book all Oregon reads in celebration of the state's 150th birthday.
Kessler is also author of Washington Post best-seller Clever Girl: Elizabeth Bentley, the Spy Who Ushered in the McCarthy Era, a biography of Elizabeth Bentley, and the Los Angeles Times best-seller and Oregon Book Award finalist The Happy Bottom Riding Club, a biography of aviator Florence Pancho Barnes. David Letterman, in playful competition with Oprah, chose The Happy Bottom Riding Club as the first book for "Dave's Book Club." Kessler appeared on his show twice.
Kessler's journalism and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, O Magazine, Ladies Home Journal, Woman's Day, Prevention, newsweek.com, salon.com, The Nation Magazine and Writer's Digest.
Kessler blogs at Education
