Mary Karr

Mary Karr is an award-winning poet and memoirist, and the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University. She is the author of the critically-acclaimed, best-selling memoirs The Liars’ Club, Cherry, and Lit. In the New York Times ranking of The Liars’ Club as one of “The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years” Dwight Garner called it “one of the best books ever written about growing up in America.” Her memoir The Art of Memoir debuted at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller List. In 2015 Syracuse University awarded Karr an honorary doctorate in humane letters. She is an in-demand speaker on her career, writing, alcoholism, mental health, faith and spirituality, Catholicism, sexual abuse, and as a commencement speaker.