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Lolly Winston Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Lolly Winston
Photo: Lisa Pongrace

Lolly Winston

Lolly Winston Biography

Born and raised in Hartford CT, Lolly Winston holds an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College, where she wrote a collection of short stories as her thesis. She is the author of New York Times bestselling novels Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately, which is being developed as a film. Her short stories have appeared in The Sun, The Southeast Review, The Third Berkshire Anthology, Girls' Night Out and others. She's contributed essays to the anthologies Kiss Tomorrow Hello and Bad Girls.



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Interview

Can grief be categorized into five stages? Lolly Winston, author of the debut novel, Good Grief, think so,  but the stages aren't as neat and tidy as books lead you to believe.

Okay, the question on everyone's mind: are you a widow?
No.


Then why did you decide to write about grief?
My father died when I was 29 and four years later my mother died. The day that my dad died I went out and bought a bathmat and a new lamp. Grief didn't hit me for a while. I even found myself resenting the mourners at our house. How could they accept his death so readily? I found grief like charging something on a credit card--you pay later, with interest. Months after my father's death I started breaking down. I remember sitting at my desk at work one day, unable to pick up my pencil. Grief and depression became disabling. I was single at the time, and I'd lost the person whom I was closest to. My father and I used to talk on the phone every Sunday--about politics, basketball, whatever. After he died I had the overwhelming urge to just call him up. I wanted to tell him that Johnny Carson went off the air and the Berlin Wall came down. As I started to come out of my funk, I wanted to write about all of that that--about the messy, quirky aspects of grief.

Did you ever feel presumptuous writing about the death of a spouse when you had never had that experience? What ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Lolly Winston at BookBrowse
Me for You jacket Happiness Sold Separately jacket Good Grief jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Lolly Winston but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Elizabeth Buchan

    Elizabeth Buchan

    Elizabeth spent her childhood moving home every three years - including living for brief periods in Egypt and Nigeria before moving to Guildford, York and Edinburgh.

    After graduating from the University of Kent at ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Good Grief

    Try:
    Revenge Of The Middle-Aged Woman
    by Elizabeth Buchan

  • Fannie Flagg

    Fannie Flagg

    Fannie Flagg's career started in the fifth grade when she wrote, directed, and starred in her first play, titled The Whoopee Girls, and she has not stopped since. At age nineteen she began writing and producing television ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Good Grief

    Try:
    Standing In The Rainbow
    by Fannie Flagg

We recommend 9 similar authors

View all 9 Read-Alikes

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