Life Story

Laura Zigman grew up in Newton, Massachusetts (where she felt she never quite fit in), and graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (where she didn’t fit in either) and the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course (where she finally started to feel like she fit in).

She spent ten years working (slaving away) in New York in book publishing where she was a (much-abused under-appreciated) publicist for Times Books, Vintage Books, Turtle Bay Books, Atlantic Monthly Press, and Alfred A. Knopf.

After moving to Washington, D.C. (because she was burnt out and didn’t know where else to go) and working briefly as a project manager for The Smithsonian Associates (she had a cubicle) and a consultant for Share Our Strength, an anti-poverty non-profit group (she didn’t even have a cubicle), she (finally) finished her first novel (that she’d been writing in her “spare time” for the last five years).

(The thinly-disguised autobiographical novel) Animal Husbandry was published in 1998 by The Dial Press and became a national bestseller. It was published in fourteen countries (or more, she’s not sure) and in 2001 the film based on the book, Someone Like You, (they changed the title at the last minute because they were afraid people wouldn’t “get” the meaning of the original title — not that she’s complaining or anything) starring Ashley Judd and (excuse her while she drools) Hugh Jackman, was released by Fox 2000. Her second (thinly-disguised autobiographical) novel, Dating Big Bird, also published by The Dial Press, came out in 2000, and her third (thinly disguised autobiographical) novel, Her, published by Knopf (where she once worked — an exquisite irony), followed in 2002, and was optioned by Julia Roberts’ production company (nothing happened). Her fourth (thinly-disguised autobiographical) novel, Piece of Work, published by Warner Books/Grand Central in 2006 (finally, after four long years in between books), is based on her (horrific but entertaining) experiences as a publicist and was optioned by Tom Hanks’ production company, Playtone Pictures (nothing happened).  Her first work of “collaborative non-fiction” (ghostwriting with her name on it) — a self-help book written with television matchmaker Patti Novak — Get Over Yourself! How to Get Real, Get Serious, and Get Ready to Find True Love, was published in 2009 by Ballantine Books.

She currently lives outside Boston (in the same town she grew up in — how weird is that? — and where she now feels like fits in) with her husband and young son.  She’s a(n irregular) contributor to The New York Times, a(n occasional) guest blogger for The Huffington Post, (and no longer has a cartoon-strip blog on MyBreastCancerNetwork.com about her experience with breast cancer).  She’s (finally) at work on a (thinly disguised autobiographical) non-fiction book about moving home, as an adult, to where she grew up, called Still Life With Braces.