Cullerton, Brenda

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CULLERTON, Brenda

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Little, Brown and Company, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER:

Freelance fashion writer and author; journalist; former advertising copywriter.

WRITINGS:

Geoffrey Beene, H. N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1995.

A Home for All Seasons, H. N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Meg Lesser Roberts and Steven Roberts) Time at Home, photographs by Maura McEvoy, H. N. Abrams (New York, NY), 2001.

The Nearly Departed; or, My Family and Other Foreigners, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2003.

Frequent contributor to periodicals such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and British House and Garden.

SIDELIGHTS:

A freelance writer, Brenda Cullerton has covered the fashion scene in New York City for several years. She has also produced promotional materials and advertising campaigns for well-known designers and stores. Cullerton's first full-length book was a study of fashion icon Geoffrey Beene. She has also produced work outside of the fashion world with a memoir about her idiosyncratic family.

Cullerton's book Geoffrey Beene, illustrated throughout by fashion photographers, is not a chronological approach to the designer's work, but, according to a Library Journal reviewer, "an aesthetic appreciation of his artistry." Cullerton examines Beene's bold use of color, his use of diverse fabrics, and his unusual geometric patterns. A Time critic called the book a "harmonious retrospective," and Ilene Cooper in Booklist stated that the text was "witty and informative."

Cullerton's memoir of family life in Connecticut, The Nearly Departed; or, My Family and Other Foreigners, exhibits her creativity, wit, and sensitivity. Deborah Bigelow in Library Journal called The Nearly Departed "a cut above the average memoir, as it leads the reader to introspection, especially regarding the meaning of family." A critic for Kirkus Reviews called the story "a history that comes alive as discomfiting flashes, then in great fearful helpings."

Cullerton grew up in Ridgefield, a wealthy and conventional suburban community. Cullerton's family, however, was anything but conventional. Instead, her family was full of "characters," such as an uncle who slept in his car and a grandfather who committed suicide with a pair of hedge clippers. Her father was a jet-setting philanderer with a wicked sense of humor. Cullerton reserves her most descriptive passages for her mother, Mary Cullerton, an eccentric who sang at the top of her lungs while gardening in her underwear, and who wore galoshes to bed to avoid being electrocuted by lightning.

As a reviewer for the MyShelf.com Web site put it, "The Nearly Departed is definitely a unique read and a good dose of realization to anyone whose family is full of quirkiness and unbelievable loved ones." Pam Houston in O, The Oprah Magazine also noted that the book is "about all the ways shame mutilates the spirit and how love can help us let it go."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 1996, Ilene Cooper, review of Geoffrey Beene, p. 3412; May 15, 2003, Kristine Huntley, review of The Nearly Departed; or, My Family and Other Foriegners, pp. 1635-1636.

Harper's Bazaar, March, 1996, Wendy Goodman, "A Writer's Tale," pp. 249-250.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2003, review of The Nearly Departed, p. 358.

Library Journal, January, 1996, Wilda Williams, review of Geoffrey Beene, p. 94; April 1, 2003, Deborah Bigelow, review of The Nearly Departed, p. 108.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, December 3, 1995, Carol Schatz, review of Geoffrey Beene, p. 31.

Miami Herald, May 21, 2003, review of The Nearly Departed.

New York Times, May 4, 2003, Penelope Green, "Mother, Where Art Thou?," section 9, p. 13.

O, The Oprah Magazine, May, 2003, Pam Houston, "Mixed Nuts: A Darkly Funny Memoir of Being Reared by Wackos," p. 188.

Publishers Weekly, February 24, 2003, review of The Nearly Departed, p. 59.

Time, December 11, 1995, review of Geoffrey Beene, pp. 75-76.