Elizabeth Strout was born in Portland, Maine. From a young age, she was drawn to writing things down, keeping notebooks that recorded the quotidian details of her days.  She was also drawn to books and spent hours of her youth in the local library lingering among the stacks.

During her adolescent years, Strout continued writing avidly, having conceived of herself as a writer from early on.  She enjoyed reading biographies of writers. She began a self-study on the way American writers, in particular, told their stories.  Poetry was something she read and memorized; by the age of sixteen was sending out stories to magazines.  Her first story was published when she was twenty-six. 

Visit the author’s website