Elizabeth Strout is an American novelist known for writing short stories and literary fiction. Strout was born in Portland but spent much of her childhood in New Hampshire and Maine. She always loved writing since she was a child and could be found with notebooks and diaries, where she recorded her story ideas and short fiction. She also loved reading and spent a lot of time at the local library, particularly in the fiction section. In the summer months, she would be found playing outdoors often alone and sometimes with her brother. Strout did say that she developed her affinity for the outdoors and the physical world when she was playing in the woods of New Hampshire and the rock covered coasts of Maine. Her love for writing continued right into adolescence, where she continued to write as she thought of herself as an author from a very young age. During this time, she read the biographies of many professional authors and studied the different writing styles, particularly how authors told stories. She also read and memorized a lot of poetry and by the time she turned sixteen, she was submitting her stories to magazines.
Books in order of publication:
Olive Books
| Olive Kitteridge | (2008) | |
| Olive, Again | (2019) |
Standalone Novels
| Amy and Isabelle | (1998) | |
| Abide with Me | (2005) | |
| The Burgess Boys | (2013) | |
| My Name is Lucy Barton | (2016) | |
| Anything is Possible | (2017) |
Anthologies Books
| The Best American Short Stories 2013 | (2013) | |
| The Stories of Frederick Busch | (2013 |
Oak Lawn Library Friends 