Maria Semple

Maria Semple

Author Biography

Maria Semple was born in 1964 and spent her first two years in Spain where her father had gone to write a play, but instead ended up writing the pilot for the TV series Batman. They packed up for Los Angeles, where Maria mainly remembers being driven around the hills in a Mercedes convertible with ...
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Influences

Jane Austen
James Salter

Favorite Books

Lolita
Middlemarch
American Pastoral
Pride and Prejudice
The Corrections
Anna Karenina
House of Mirth

Favorite Authors

Philip Roth
James Salter
Jane Austen
Leo Tolstoy
Susan Orlean
Bruce Wagner
Merrill Markoe
John Hodgman
Maile Meloy
Barbara Trapido
Scott Spencer
Edith Wharton

What I'm Reading

WHEN WE WERE ROMANS by Matthew Kneale

"A total delight, told from the point of view of a young boy. Funny, surprising and engaging."

THE ART OF FICTION & ON BECOMING A NOVELIST by John Gardner

"High-minded, beautifully written books. There isn't a time when I'm NOT reading one of these."

Web Links

MariaSemple.com

Maria Semple's Blog

Cosmic Alignment
December 9, 2008
- Maybe the greatest thing about writing a novel happens when you cross over into that trippy realm where everything you see and hear seems to fit eerily into your book: -Your fifteen year old nephew sends you a CD of his new band, "Hanging With Yoko" and you can't fucking believe it because for two years you've tried to think of the perfect name for an indie band and now you have one. ...
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THE STORY OF THIS ONE IS MINE
December 9, 2008
- I used to write for TV. I worked on good shows, like Ellen, Mad About You and Arrested Development. And bad shows that nobody needs to know about. During those years, I never actually watched TV, though. All I did was read. Writing for TV was fun and challenging, and something I was good at, but the end product never much held my interest. One day, when I was in the middle of ...
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