Meister, Ellen

PERSONAL: Born in Bronx, NY; married; husband’s name Mike; children: two sons and a daughter. Education: Graduated from University of Buffalo (magna cum laude).

ADDRESSES: Home—Long Island, NY. Agent—Annelise Robey, Jane Rotrosen Agency, 318 E. 51st St., New York, NY 10022. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Previously worked at various jobs, including as a promotion assistant for a medical publisher, a literary agency, a trade association doing publicity and promotion, various magazines as a copywriter, and then as founder of a sales promotion agency.

WRITINGS

Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA (novel), W. Morrow (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of blog Side Dish.

ADAPTATIONS: Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA, has been adapted for audio, Brilliance Audio, 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: In her first novel, Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA Ellen Meister tells the story of three women—Maddie, Ruth, and Lisa—who are on the Applewood PTA committee and receive the job of sprucing up the town’s reputation when Hollywood starts scouting Applewood to shoot a movie starring George Clooney. In addition to their public relations duties, however, the three women must also deal with problems in their own lives, including a bad marriage, a secret affair due to a husband’s impotency, and an alcoholic mother who has ruined her singing career. Commenting on where the idea for the book came from, the author told a contributor to the Ink Pot Web site: “I had walked into a PTA meeting . . . feeling like I had this big secret. No one there knew I wanted to write. No one even knew I had an inner life.” The author continued: “Then I got to wondering if all the women in the room were thinking more or less the same thing. That’s when I knew I needed to write about these women, and to explore the depth of their lives.”

Carol Haggas, writing in Booklist, noted that Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA is filled “with sexy characters, sharp dialogue, and snappy pacing.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that the novel’s premise “leads to madcap escapades and silly sniping amongst the women,” adding that it’s a “comical yet poignant read without too much melodrama.” Amy Brozio-Andrews commented in the Library Journal that the author’s “debut novel is heartbreakingly funny.”

Meister told CA:“I suspect that for most writers, the infection begins in the tender, heartsick teen years, when we’re so open to falling in love. It was certainly that way for me. Like most kids my age, I pored over J.D. Salinger’s paragraphs as if they were a treasure map to enlightenment. Oddly enough, though, it wasn’t Catcher in the Rye that gave me that first woosh of love for the craft. It was ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’ from [Salinger’s]Nine Stories. It’s a brilliant piece filled with exquisite sentences, but there was one simple line of dialogue that hit me in such a sweet spot my heart caved in. And that was it.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2006, Carol Haggas, review of Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA, p. 39.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2006, review of Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA, p. 489.

Library Journal, June 15, 2006, Amy Brozio-Andrews, review of Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA, p. 60.

Publishers Weekly, May 8, 2006, review of Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA, p. 45.

ONLINE

Ellen Meister Home Page, http://ellenmeister.com (January 1, 2007).

Ink Pot, http://www.inkpots.net/ (January 1, 2007), “Ellen Meister,” interview with author.

insolent rudder, http://www.insolentrudder.net/ (January 1, 2007), “A Quarterly Conversation with . . . Ellen Meister.”

Syosset-Jericho Tribune Web site, http://www.antonnews.com/syossetjerichotribune/ (April 8, 2005), “Jericho Author Ellen Meister Writes Debut Novel.”