"Literate professionalism...the comic's antic wit...streetwise...frank feminism, deftly presented...fine, funny, and moving...a dead-on depiction of the contemporary urban landscape."–Kirkus
–The New York Times Book Review
"A writer with a gift for funny language...some of the funniest writing about growing up Catholic I've ever read."
–Ms. Magazine
Kathleen Rockwell Lawrence started life as an only child but wound up the eldest of ten. This is what made her, and made her a writer. Kathleen is the author of two novels: Maud Gone and The Last Room in Manhattan, as well as a collection of her essays: The Boys I Didn't Kiss. Sadly, growing up repressed and Catholic in Appalachia, she didn't get to kiss so many boys. Maybe one or two.
A former HERS columnist for The New York Times, she's also contributed to The New York Times Magazine, The OpEd Page, and the Travel Section. Her articles and essays have appeared in Vogue, Ms., Glamour, Newsday, 7Days, The Chicago Tribune, The North American Review, Irish America, and The Antioch Review. Grants and fellowships include The MacDowell Colony, Jerome Foundation, Yaddo, Bread Loaf, Ragdale, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and Oxford University/The English-Speaking Union. A member of PEN American Center, The Writers Room, and Irish-American Writers and Artists, she teaches at City University of New York.
A second-generation Irish-American, with dual Irish/US citizenship, she is currently working on a memoir, Becoming Irish, a consideration of her huge and troubled family through the prism of the Irish Troubles—The Starvation, The Land Wars, and the legacy of the diaspora. Connecting with that tragic history has given her a deeper understanding of the heartbreak of disruption and loss that so many Irish-Americans carry with them, often unconsciously; in turn, that understanding has enabled her to feel a new sympathy toward her own parents.
Not incidentally, when it came time for reproduction, Kathleen had an only child, who is now fully-grown.