The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Author Info Alice Sebold was born on September 6, 1963 in Madison, Wisconsin but grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia Graduated from Great Valley HS (Malvern, PA) in 1980 Attended Syracuse University 1980-1984 but graduated from the University of Houston Received her Master’s degree from the University of California-Irvine (1998)

Author Info (continued) Sebold was raped when she was a freshman at Syracuse (18 years old) Was attacked, beaten and brutally raped in the tunnel to the amphitheater (another girl was killed and dismembered in the same tunnel earlier) Was told by a police officer she was lucky to be alive (future title for her memoir) Several months after returning to Syracuse she recognized her rapist and he was eventually arrested

After Attending Syracuse Attended University of Houston for graduate school Moves to Manhattan and lived there for 10 years Held several jobs as a waitress while pursuing her writing career Began to use drugs (heroine) for several years but claims she never was addicted to the drug Later moved to California

The Memoir Lucky Lucky took shape in the late 1990’s while studying writing in a graduate program at UCI A short writing assignment sparked her to write forty pages about her rape Sebold began to put her memoir together fifteen years after the attack Sebold wrote the first chapter of The Lovely Bones and stopped to finish Lucky

The Lovely Bones Novel about a 14 year old girl who is raped, murdered and dismembered Susie Salmon (the main character) tells her story from her “heaven” Susie watches and narrates from her heaven as her family tries to cope with her death and her killer attempts to elude the police The Lovely Bones is a tribute to the girl who died where Sebold was later raped

Five Stages of Grief Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance

Recognition Won the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award for Adult Fiction in 2003 Won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel in 2002 Is an alum of the Ragdale Foundation

Other Works by Alice Sebold Lucky (memoir, 1999) The Lovely Bones (novel, 2002) The Almost Moon (novel, 2007)