1. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

2. Author Info
Alice Sebold was born on September 6, 1963 in Madison, Wisconsin but grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia
Graduated from Great Valley HS (Malvern, PA) in 1980
Attended Syracuse University but graduated from the University of Houston
Received her Master’s degree from the University of California-Irvine (1998)

3. Author Info (continued)
Sebold was raped when she was a freshman at Syracuse (18 years old)
Was attacked, beaten and brutally raped in the tunnel to the amphitheater (another girl was killed and dismembered in the same tunnel earlier)
Was told by a police officer she was lucky to be alive (future title for her memoir)
Several months after returning to Syracuse she recognized her rapist and he was eventually arrested

4. After Attending Syracuse
Attended University of Houston for graduate school
Moves to Manhattan and lived there for 10 years
Held several jobs as a waitress while pursuing her writing career
Began to use drugs (heroine) for several years but claims she never was addicted to the drug
Later moved to California

5. The Memoir Lucky
Lucky took shape in the late 1990’s while studying writing in a graduate program at UCI
A short writing assignment sparked her to write forty pages about her rape
Sebold began to put her memoir together fifteen years after the attack
Sebold wrote the first chapter of The Lovely Bones and stopped to finish Lucky

6. The Lovely Bones
Novel about a 14 year old girl who is raped, murdered and dismembered
Susie Salmon (the main character) tells her story from her “heaven”
Susie watches and narrates from her heaven as her family tries to cope with her death and her killer attempts to elude the police
The Lovely Bones is a tribute to the girl who died where Sebold was later raped

7. Five Stages of Grief
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

8. Recognition
Won the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award for Adult Fiction in 2003
Won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel in 2002
Is an alum of the Ragdale Foundation

9. Other Works by Alice Sebold
Lucky (memoir, 1999)
The Lovely Bones (novel, 2002)
The Almost Moon (novel, 2007)