Josephine Carr

Josephine Carr

New: I have launched a blog. Please visit me there! JosephineCarrWrites.blogspot.com

The first thing you ought to know about me is that I go by the nickname, Jody (and, yes, apparently my parents did name me after the character of Jody in The Yearling).

My Facts: Fast

I grew up in a suburb of Washington, D.C., until I was thirteen years old, when my father accepted a position with the Ford Foundation and I moved to Nairobi, Kenya. My first novel, intended for young adults, drew on my great passion for Kenya. (No Regrets, Dial, 1982). After two years attending Loreto Convent, I went to the College du Leman boarding school in Geneva, Switzerland.

I graduated from Mt. Holyoke College, then received my Master’s degree from Bryn Mawr College, both in the field of English Literature.

During graduate school, I married and had two children, Rachel and Daniel. After many years, the marriage ended in a spirit of friendship, and I made my new home in Washington, D.C. My parents, sister and brother live close by with their respective families. My daughter, Rachel, is a second year graduate student at Harvard, and my son, Daniel, is a junior at Yale.

My Philosophy: Fast

I truly consider myself a reader, first, and then a writer. Though, yes, it’s true that my career is as a fiction writer. Still, because reading is my first love (and we all know how powerful a first love can be!), I write to be read and my goal is to make the reading experience both pleasurable and shocking. That’s why I try to write funny. Laughing titillates and teaches, without a person really knowing that they’re being manipulated. My goal: to make you laugh and, thus, to manipulate you into seeing your world and your self with new eyes.

I am writing this on tax day, April 15th in the year 2009. The time has come to update my original personal statement because, in truth, I look nothing like I used to look. (Indeed, I also need to change the photo on this page.) A year ago, in a fit of courage, I cut off all my hair. I hadn’t had short hair since I was eighteen years old, so this was a radical change. Everyone in my life says they love it, so perhaps they do. More importantly, I am enamored with the freedom I now have.

I am equally enamored with other freedoms that have appeared in my life. My kids, Rachel and Daniel, are out in the world and thriving. Rachel is married to Art, and now lives in Palo Alto, where she is finishing up her first year of medical school at Stanford. My son, Daniel, lives with his girlfriend in Cambridge, Massachusetts; he is balancing a career of singer/songwriter with teaching, and will be enroll at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education next year.

For the last two years, I’ve been dating a man here in Washington, D.C., and I’ve recently bought my first condo as a single woman, right smack in the middle of Cleveland Park. It’s an intelligent, thoughtful, liberal community, and I’m grateful to be putting down roots in its soil.

Most importantly, though, I find My Life As Roller Coaster is slowing down. Perhaps, yes, I still ride high and then dip low, but I am moving at a gracious, reasonable speed. This is entirely due to my explorations into the world of spirit. I’ve discovered my own gifts in this area, and I’m delighted to be writing about the subject of spiritual awakening in my memoir, Fridays@Jody’s. An excerpt is available for download on this website.

Another work-in-progress, the first fifty pages of a new novel, I Think I Know You, is also available for download. I would be most appreciative of any comments you might have about either of these projects.

Josephine Carr
author of My Very Own Murder
and
The Dewey Decimal System of Love