Jeannette Walls

Best-Selling Author of “The Glass Castle,” an Amazon “Top 10 Book of the Decade”

Jeannette Walls is a journalist and author of the memoir, “The Glass Castle,” which has been on the New York Times best-sellers list for more than four years. The book has sold more than 3.5 million copies in the U.S., been translated into 22 languages, and was named one of the "Top 10 Books of the Decade" by Amazon.com. “The Glass Castle” has been taught at universities in courses on literature, psychology, parenting, child development and poverty.

In “The Glass Castle,” Walls describes growing up in the desert of the American Southwest and then in a West Virginia mining town with her three siblings and the brilliant, unorthodox, irresponsible parents who manage at once to neglect them, love them, and teach them to face their fears. Despite all her hardships, Walls develops the determination to leave West Virginia on her own at the age of sixteen, move to New York City, enroll in Barnard College and eventually become a well-known columnist for New York magazine and MSNBC.com and a television personality.

Her follow-up book, “Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel,” was released in 2009, and was an immediate New York Times best-seller. 

Walls lives in the Virginia piedmont with her husband, the writer John Taylor. She has appeared on Prime Time Live, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, Oprah, and the Diane Rheem Show.