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Joanna Smith Rakoff

Joanna Smith Rakoff
Photo Credit: Elena Seibert

Joanna Smith Rakoff

Joanna Smith Rakoff has written for The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Vogue, O: The Oprah Magazine, and other publications. She holds a B.A. from Oberlin College; an M.A. from University College, London; and an... Read full bio

Author Revealed:
Q. What is your motto or maxim?
A. I'm afraid I don't have one.
Learn more about Joanna Smith Rakoff
My life in 8 words: "Happy, busy, overly full, well-considered, sometimes chaotic."
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    1. Joanna Smith Rakoff: A Fortunate Age
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    2. Author Joanna Smith Rakoff Describes Her Most Noticeable ...
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Author Appearances have been announced:
Find Joanna Smith Rakoff appearances
Feb 22, 2010
A Fortunate Age will be released on February 16, 2010 in Trade Paperback
Feb 16, 2010
A Fortunate Age is now available in Trade Paperback
Feb 16, 2010
Author Appearances have been announced:
Find Joanna Smith Rakoff appearances
Feb 14, 2010
Jun 27, 2009
Excerpt:
Chapter 1 from A Fortunate Age
Apr 07, 2009
A Fortunate Age is now available in Hardcover
Apr 07, 2009
A Fortunate Age is now available in eBook
Apr 07, 2009
A Fortunate Age will be released on April 07, 2009 in eBook
Apr 07, 2009
A Fortunate Age is now available in eBook
Apr 07, 2009
Author Revealed Answer:
Who are your favorite authors?
Apr 03, 2009
Apr 03, 2009
Author Revealed Answer:
Is there a book you love to reread?
Apr 03, 2009
Apr 03, 2009
Apr 03, 2009

Joanna Smith Rakoff Revealed

Q. What is your motto or maxim? A. I'm afraid I don't have one. Q. If you could meet any historical character, who would it be and what would you say to him or her? A. Again, my mind doesn't quite work in this early-Caryl-Churchill-Tom-Stoppard-play sort of way, so this is hard for me to answer. But I'd love to meet favorite writers--Austen, Dickens,Eliot--and talk to them about their lives, their writing, the intersection between the two. Q. What is your biggest pet peeve? A. I really hate the unnecessary use of quotation marks. As in, menus that offer "roast" chicken. Why, why? Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be? A. I'm sort of terrified by the idea eating just one food for the rest of my life. Q. How would you describe perfect happiness? A. Lying on the couch, reading Middlemarch, eating a hard, green apple. Learn more about Joanna Smith Rakoff

Authors on the Web

Huffington Post, February 14, 2012
...cites Natasha from "War and Peace" as his all-time favorite. While co-author Maura Kelly swoons over Jay Gatsby, Joanna Smith Rakoff, author of "A Fortunate Age," prefers strong, attentive backlands boys like Laurie from "Little Women." And while...
Huffington Post, February 14, 2012
...cites Natasha from "War and Peace" as his all-time favorite. While co-author Maura Kelly swoons over Jay Gatsby, Joanna Smith Rakoff, author of "A Fortunate Age," prefers strong, attentive backlands boys like Laurie from "Little Women." And while...
Broadway World, December 19, 2011
...10th 2012, at the Pen Parentis Literary Salon’s Robert Burns Celebration, join poets Marie Howe, Evan and JoAnna Smith Rakoff, Martin MacKinnon, and Tina Chang at the Libertine at Gild Hall (a Thompson Hotel at 15 Gold Street) as they read some of...
New York Times, October 7, 2011
...moment, that we are anything but, as Michael thinks of Kelly, a terrible, everlasting mystery to each other. Joanna Smith Rakoff is the author of the novel “A Fortunate Age...
New York Times, October 7, 2011
...moment, that we are anything but, as Michael thinks of Kelly, a terrible, everlasting mystery to each other. Joanna Smith Rakoff is the author of the novel “A Fortunate Age...
Salon, August 7, 2011
...a well-paying residency is worth telling the truth about another writer's book. It's a dilemma critic Joanna Smith Rakoff has given a lot of thought to since her own first novel, "A Fortunate Age," came out in 2009. A prolific book journalist, she's...
Salon, July 24, 2011
...a well-paying residency is worth telling the truth about another writer's book. It's a dilemma critic Joanna Smith Rakoff has given a lot of thought to since her own first novel, "A Fortunate Age," came out in 2009. A prolific book journalist, she's...
Huffington Post, February 14, 2012
...cites Natasha from "War and Peace" as his all-time favorite. While co-author Maura Kelly swoons over Jay Gatsby, Joanna Smith Rakoff, author of "A Fortunate Age," prefers strong, attentive backlands boys like Laurie from "Little Women." And while...
Huffington Post, February 14, 2012
...cites Natasha from "War and Peace" as his all-time favorite. While co-author Maura Kelly swoons over Jay Gatsby, Joanna Smith Rakoff, author of "A Fortunate Age," prefers strong, attentive backlands boys like Laurie from "Little Women." And while...
Bookstack, September 25, 2011
...So we've managed just fine.I've yet to make the complete conversion to e-reading, and brought Joanna Smith Rakoff's A Fortunate Age with me in hardcover. I finished it last night, and started The Swimming Pool, which I had downloaded onto my iPad before...