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Laura Moriarty

Biography

Laura Moriarty

Laura Moriarty earned a degree in social work before returning for her M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Kansas. She was the recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship for Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, and is now a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Kansas. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas, and is at work on her next novel.

Laura Moriarty

Books by Laura Moriarty

by Laura Moriarty - Fiction, Women's Fiction

It’s 1949, early in the Cold War, but St. Petersburg, Florida is warm, lush and booming with newcomers. For 17-year-old Nora, St. Pete feels like paradise, especially after she meets Leonard, the shy, brilliant son of transplanted New Yorkers. Nora and Leonard are soon spending balmy days and evenings together, and in her adoring, encouraging company, he grows more confident. Leonard's mother welcomes Nora into their lives, but his father distrusts her motives. When his suspicions are seemingly confirmed, Nora takes a chance that changes her life, exiling her from the family she loves and setting off a chain of secrets and betrayals that will follow her into adulthood. It is a mature Nora who tells the story of her turbulent past. Wiser and more worldly, she commits to an honest but compassionate account, and to a future based on trusting, first and foremost, herself.

by Laura Moriarty - Fiction, Young Adult 13+

Imagine a United States in which registries and detainment camps for Muslim-Americans are a reality. Fifteen-year-old Sarah-Mary Williams lives in this world, and though she has strong opinions on almost everything, she isn’t concerned with the internments because she doesn’t know any Muslims. She assumes that everything she reads and sees in the news is true, and that these plans are better for everyone’s safety. So when she happens upon Sadaf, a Muslim fugitive determined to reach freedom in Canada, Sarah-Mary at first believes she must turn her in. But Sadaf challenges Sarah-Mary’s perceptions of right and wrong, and instead Sarah-Mary decides to do all she can to help Sadaf escape.

by Laura Moriarty and Elizabeth McGovern - Fiction

THE CHAPERONE is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both. Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s,’30s, and beyond, THE CHAPERONE illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them.The New York Times bestseller and the USA Today #1 Hot Fiction Pick for the summer, THE CHAPERONE is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both.

by Laura Moriarty - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Only a few years before becoming a famous actress and an icon for her generation, a 15-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita to make it big in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a 36-year-old chaperone who is neither mother nor friend. Young Louise is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will change their lives forever.

by Laura Moriarty - Fiction

Leigh is the mother of high-achieving, popular high school senior Kara. Their relationship is already strained for reasons Leigh does not fully understand when, in a moment of carelessness, Kara makes a mistake that ends in tragedy --- the effects of which not only divide Leigh's family, but polarize the entire community.