Elizabeth Strout
Her deceptively quiet novels about ordinary lives in small-town Maine uncover the seismic tremors of love, shame, and human connection.
Born 1956 (age 70)·American writer·Birthday: January 6·Baby Boomers
Biography
Elizabeth Strout builds her world one careful, compassionate sentence at a time. Born and raised in Maine, she spent years as a lawyer before publishing her first novel at 42, a delay that infused her work with a patient understanding of human complexity. Her fictional universe, often centered on the towns of Crosby and Shirley Falls, Maine, is populated by people bearing quiet burdens—a woman reckoning with a traumatic past in 'Amy and Isabelle,' the beloved everywoman Olive Kitteridge whose brusque exterior hides deep wells of feeling. Strout's genius lies in her ability to make the interior life of a retired schoolteacher or a lonely lawyer feel as vast and consequential as any epic. Writing in a spare, resonant style, she returns to characters across books, allowing them to age and intersect, creating a rich tapestry of American life that proves the ordinary is never simple. Her work insists that within the confines of a small town or a single heart, entire universes of emotion reside.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Elizabeth was born in 1956, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Elizabeth Was Born
The biggest hits of 1956
#1 Movie
The Ten Commandments
Best Picture
Around the World in 80 Days
#1 TV Show
I Love Lucy
Elizabeth's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1956Born
Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show
Gas: $0.30/galHome: $10,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Heartbreak Hotel" — Elvis PresleyBest Picture: Around the World in 80 Days
1961Started school
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $12,500Min wage: $1.15/hrPresident: John F. Kennedy"Tossin' and Turnin'" — Bobby LewisBest Picture: West Side Story
1969Became a teenager
Apollo 11: humans walk on the Moon; Woodstock festival
Gas: $0.35/galHome: $15,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Sugar, Sugar" — The ArchiesBest Picture: Midnight Cowboy
1972Could drive
Watergate break-in; last Apollo Moon mission
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $19,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" — Roberta FlackBest Picture: The Godfather
1974Could vote
Nixon resigns the presidency
Gas: $0.53/galHome: $22,600Min wage: $2.00/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"The Way We Were" — Barbra StreisandBest Picture: The Godfather Part II
1977Turned 21
Star Wars premieres; Elvis dies
Gas: $0.62/galHome: $31,800Min wage: $2.30/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Tonight's the Night" — Rod StewartBest Picture: Annie Hall
1986Turned 30
Challenger disaster; Chernobyl nuclear meltdown
Gas: $0.86/galHome: $66,600Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"That's What Friends Are For" — Dionne & FriendsBest Picture: Platoon
1996Turned 40
Dolly the sheep cloned
Gas: $1.23/galHome: $99,700Min wage: $4.75/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Macarena" — Los del RioBest Picture: The English Patient
2006Turned 50
Twitter launches; Pluto reclassified as dwarf planet
Gas: $2.59/galHome: $174,700Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Bad Day" — Daniel PowterBest Picture: The Departed
2016Turned 60
Donald Trump elected president; Brexit vote
Gas: $2.14/galHome: $181,700Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Love Yourself" — Justin BieberBest Picture: Moonlight
2026Turned 70
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel-in-stories 'Olive Kitteridge' in 2009.
- Her novel 'My Name is Lucy Barton' spawned a series of interconnected books exploring family and memory.
- Earned the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for 'The Burgess Boys' in 2014.
- Saw 'Olive Kitteridge' adapted into a critically acclaimed HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand.
- Her work 'Oh William!' was a finalist for the Booker Prize in 2022.
Did You Know?
She worked as a lawyer for six months before quitting to focus on writing, taking various teaching jobs to support herself.
She has said that the character of Olive Kitteridge is an amalgam of several people, including traces of her own mother.
She is married to former Maine Attorney General James Tierney.
She writes her first drafts in longhand on legal pads before typing them up.
“We are all mysteries, is what I mean. Even to ourselves we are mysteries.”
