Carolyn Wall (1963)
Sweeping Up Glass is Carolyn Wall's searing debut novel will be available on bookstands, from Random House August 4, 2009.
A full-time freelance writer and lecturer on university campuses, in her home, and in conference centers across the country, she conducts uniquely intense workshops in Fiction, Short Story and Feature Writing, Journaling, and Writing for Children. She is best known for her six-week classes: “How To Write What You Feel" and for motivating writers everywhere.
As an Artist-in-Residence for the Oklahoma Arts Council, she has taught creative writing to 4,000 children in her home state.
Carolyn Wall served as the Fiction Editor for ByLine Magazine and Senior Staff Writer for Persimmon Hill, the award-winning publication of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. For three years, she was chief writer for the museum’s children’s magazine.
More than 1,000 of her stories, articles, photographs, and reviews have appeared in over 100 magazines and newspapers. In 1995, she wrote for and edited the book Braced Against The Wind, the only literary history of the bombing of Oklahoma City. In the fall of 1998, she wrote, produced and recorded The Journaling Tapes: Writing From The Heart, a six-weeks’ course in daily journaling. She has done voice-over work for radio and television.
The recipient of regional and national writing honors, Wall received the Creme-de-la-Creme award from the Oklahoma Writers' Federation, Inc., in 1997 for her young adult short story, With This Kiss, Wally Fishkin. In the fall of 1998, The U.S. Department of the Interior, and Wyoming’s Bearlodge Writers, presented her with a writing residency at Devils Tower. She is the only writer in a five-state region to have the distinction of receiving the OWFI Creme-de-la-Creme award twice. Her first two novels have sold in 11 countries on four continents. She is currently working on her third novel. She and her husband live in Oklahoma City
“This is a perfect little book, like a head-on collision between Flannery O’Connor and Harper Lee, with a bit of Faulkner on a mystery binge. I loved every page of it.”—Joe R. Landsdale, Edgar-award winner
“Carolyn D. Wall has created an engaging character in Olivia Harker and a complex and densely interconnected community in Aurora , Kentucky . Her evocative prose recalls the regional style of such authors as Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, and Eudora Welty.”—Mystery Scene
"Wall gives her heroine a powerful voice in this haunting debut."—Kirkus Reviews
“A real stunner, with plot and characters the like of which you’ve never seen.”—MLB News
“Highly recommended for all collections.” —Library Journal, starred review
“A powerful novel…features unforgettable characters placed in a terrifying situation….this is a fine novel which deserves a wide audience.”—Mystery News
“The strong, fresh narrative voice pulls the reader in and doesn’t let go in Wall’s stunning debut.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“The suspense is gripping, the danger is very real, and the reader gets caught up in Wall’s powerful, moving debut.” —Library Journal, starred review
“This debut novel does so much more than traditional, tightly focused mysteries. It has a powerfully, sometimes uncomfortably, realized setting; characters who seem drawn from life; and a wide-ranging plot, bursting with complications...A gripping story and a truly original voice.” —Booklist
“This extraordinary debut novel…is filled with arresting images, bitter humor, and characters with palpable physical presence. The fresh voice of that clear-eyed narrator reminded me of Scout in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. I literally could not put it down.” — Boston Globe
“Haunting, lyrical, entirely absorbing, Sweeping Up Glass deserves a place on the shelf next to classics like True Grit and To Kill a Mockingbird.”—Martha Beck
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