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Family
Family
Anthony was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1973. He grew up with both parents and has 2 older brothers. His father owns a small printing business and Anthony's mother was a science teacher. She was a huge inspiration to Anthony. She encouraged the mix of science and arts and she too was a big reader. Anthony also mentions in an interview that his mother would let him and his siblings read as they are having dinner, encouraging his love for books. She would use the library as almost a daycare and Anthony says that it was like a third home. He went to high school at University School in Hunting Valley, then on to college at Bowdoin College. Anthony currently lives in Boise, Idaho and is married to his wife, Shauna Eastman, whom he met at Bowdoin College. Together they have twin boys, Henry and Owen.
Education
Anthony majored in history at Bowdoin College in Brunswick Maine, graduating in 1995. He chose Bowdoin because of the location being near an ocean. He also minored in English. His choices of study were his way of incorporating writing in his education without completely announcing his want for a career in it. Ever since he was young he had found ways to write such as, sneaking on his mothers type writer, or just writing short stories in school, or just writing in a notebook by himself. From a young age nature and marine biology were an interest to him. His mother would take him and his siblings to Florida every year, which is where his interest in nature, specifically oceanography spawned from. While attending Bowdoin, Anthony participated in rugby which allowed him to go on team trips and further his love for nature. After graduating Anthony got a job at a fish packing plant and later moved to New Zealand with a friend to work on a farm. Anthony always felt behind the other college graduates, and he emphasized how they had fancy internships straight out of college. At this point Doerr wanted to be a writer, but didn’t think it was an acceptable career. Working on the farm allowed him to read and write a lot furthering his interest and love. Eventually, along with bachelors in history, Anthony later went back to school and received an MFA in writing from Bowling Green State University. He graduated in 1999. He started his career off writing in magazines and making money through that resource and it took off from there.
Achievements
Anthony Doerr has many achievements including the awards he has won such as Pulitzer Prize, Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, Rome Prize, Carnegie Medal, 5 O'Henry Prizes, Ohioana book award, Guggenheim fellowship, 4 Pushcart Prizes, etc. Along with his numerous awards, Doerr has also had 1 book turned into a movie and his books have been translated into 40 different languages. Anthony’s most well known novel is All the Light we Cannot See which is what led to him receiving the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. The same novel also spent over 200 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Career
Anthony started out writing in magazines and little things like that and eventually, Anthony published his first short stories in 2002 called The Shell Collector. From there he has gone on to write 6 more books: About Grace (2004), Four Seasons in Rome (2007), Memory Wall (2010), All the Light we Cannot See (2014), and most recently Cloud Cuckoo Land (2021). Along with a career in writing, Anthony has taught at many institutions including, University of Wisconsin, Boise State University, and Princeton. He also taught at DeRoy-Graff Memorial as a visiting professor teaching a half term Honors Seminar at the University of Michigan.
Fun Facts
Fun Facts
Along with his current location, he has lived in Rome, Africa, and New Zealand. It took Anthony 10 years to research, write, and publish the book All the Light we Cannot See. Anthony was rejected from poetry school and many graduate classes which brought out his competitiveness. At one point in college Anthony was a cook in a Colorado ski area. Anthony does immense research for each book he writes. Cloud Cuckoo land took 7 years to write. All the Light We Cannot see over 15 million sales. Since Anthony writes mostly historical fiction he pays an exorbitant amount of attention to every little detail that could be going on in that time period. For example, in an interview he speaks on Cloud Cuckoo Land and how one character is from the 15 hundreds and with that he researches what food they would eat, how they would talk, what the area looks like, and other intricate details. His book All the Light we Cannot See was made into a series on Netflix and currently has 1 season.
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