Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia in 1998, when she was twenty-three. What started as a crazy idea suggested by a writer friend became the classic book that has been published in sixteen languages, is taught in universities all over the world, and has, according to the thousands of letters Marya has received over the years, changed lives.
Her second book, the acclaimed novel The Center of Winter, has been called “masterful,” “gorgeous writing,” “a stunning achievement of storytelling,” and “compulsive reading.” The novel tells the story of a family recovering from a father's suicide in the spare, wintry Minnesota north, and in exploring this seemingly dark landscape, discovers light, redemption, and hope. This book, too, is taught in some of the best writing and literature programs in the United States and Europe.
Marya's second memoir, Madness: A Bipolar Life, was published to immediate and enormous praise, hitting the New York Times Bestseller List and earning the remark in that publication, “Hornbacher is a virtuoso writer.” Madness is “an intense, beautifully written” book about the difficulties, and promise, of living with mental illness. It has been called “the most visceral, important book on mental illness to be published in years.”
Her fourth and fifth books, both published by Hazelden Publishers, took Marya in a new and exciting direction that allowed her to put her experience with recovery to use in the recovery community. Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the Twelve Steps is a practical, funny, user-friendly guide to working the Twelve Steps for people who deal with both mental illness and addiction. Waiting: A Nonbeliever’s Higher Power is a powerful, almost radical exploration of what spirituality can mean to the recovering person who does not believe in God.
The recipient of a host of awards for her journalism and books, a Pulitzer Prize and Pushcart Prize nominee, Marya frequently lectures at universities and other institutions around the country. Currently at work on a new novel and a collection of essays, she teaches graduate creative writing, journalism, and literature at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
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