Hi! I’m Claire Cook.
Here’s the short version of my story:
I wrote my first book in my minivan when I was 45. At 50, I walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the romantic comedy movie adaption of Must Love Dogs. I’m now the New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author of 24 books. My books have been translated into 14 languages.
Take it from me, if you have a buried dream, it’s never too late!
Must Love Readers
It’s Never Too Late to Shine On is the overarching theme of my writing and my life. My goal is to share everything I’ve learned on my own journey that might help other 40-to-forever women in theirs. Through my books, both fiction and nonfiction. Through my newsletter. Through this website. By speaking and teaching and chatting with all the fabulous women I’m lucky enough to meet online or in person.
Movie stuff
Everybody always wants to know more about the Must Love Dogs movie. I tell the whole story in Never Too Late but in a nutshell, it was an absolute blast. And guess what? The Must Love Dogs book series might end up being a TV series, so keep your fingers crossed for me. (And make sure you’re on my newsletter list, so you stay in the loop!)
“There is a compelling honesty and gentleness to Claire Cook’s work that I find irresistible. Warm and real and insightfully funny; resonant with the small truths and laughs of recognition that elevate and illuminate our daily struggles within this complex and complicated new American world.”—Gary David Goldberg
The longer version
More stuff
Over the course of 24 years and 24 books, the Today show has featured me as a Today’s Woman. Good Morning America chose one of my books (Life’s a Beach) as a summer book pick. People magazine has featured a couple of them. The Boston Globe said my writing is “a hoot” and even the New York Times said my books are “beach-chair worthy” and had “surprising moments of poignancy and depth.” I’m pretty sure “surprising” was meant to be an insult, but I’ll take it anyway!
I’ve been a judge for the Family Circle magazine fiction contest, a finalist and a judge for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and the Beach Book Festival fiction and grand prize winner. I’ve spoken at the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, Denmark Literary Festival, Cape Cod Writers Conference, the California Women’s Conference, and given keynotes at the Dress for Success International Conference, the Missouri Writers Guild Conference, and many, many more. I’ve given reinvention workshops across the country, and I teach for Emory University’s ECE Creative Writing certificate program.
I grew up in a family of eight kids. I was born in Virginia, and we also lived in Rhode Island, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. I was a Newhouse Scholar at Syracuse University with a dual major in film and creative writing, and I spent my senior year as a visiting student at Harvard University, where I studied with Robert S. Fitzgerald, who translated The Iliad and The Odyssey (and who also gave me an A, which clearly I still remember!)
Even though I knew I wanted to write a book from the time I was a little girl, I chickened out. (Read all about it in Never Too Late.) I was a teacher for sixteen years before I finally had the guts to write my first book, and I worked with children from preschool to middle school, teaching everything from multicultural games and dances, to writing, to open ocean rowing.
I lived for many years in Scituate, Massachusetts, a lovely beach town between Boston and Cape Cod. After a stint in Atlanta, my husband and I have moved to St. Simons Island, GA, which reminds us of Scituate—but without the snow. We have two awesome adult kids and a houseful of rescue cats. (Read about the cats in Must Love Dogs: Who Let the Cats In?)
(Check out my Wikipedia page here.) (Read book excerpts here.)
