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Mary Karr

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Poet

The Resume

    (January 16, 1955- )
    Born in Groves, Texas
    Poetry collections include 'Abacus' (1987), 'The Devil's Tour' (1993), 'Viper Rum' (2001), 'Sinners Welcome' (2006), and 'Tropic of Squalor' (2018)
    Wrote the memoirs 'The Liar's Club' (1995), 'Cherry' (2001), and 'Lit' (2009)
    Wrote 'The Art of Memoir' (2015)

Why she might be annoying:

    She was abusing alcohol and illicit drugs in her teens.
    She is a self-described 'cafeteria Catholic' who admitted, 'I think all kinds of things that the current doctrine opposes.... I could make a long list.' (For a start of that list, she is pro-choice on abortion, and favors ordaining women as priests.)
    She is a poet who had her greatest success as a memoirist. ('[Poetry is] what I really want to do, but they won't pay me for it.')
    She started 'Lit' over twice, throwing out over a thousand pages. ('I actually broke the delete button off my keyboard writing that book.')
    She has been blamed for an 'onslaught of confessional memoirs' published in the wake of the success of 'The Liar's Club.'

Why she might not be annoying:

    During a psychotic break, her mother tried to kill her with a butcher knife.
    She was raped by a neighborhood boy at age seven, and was molested by a babysitter four years later.
    During an affair with David Foster Wallace, he tried to push her from a moving vehicle and threw a coffee table at her during a fight.
    After their breakup, he stalked her for months, even after she had her telephone number changed twice.
    She encourages clarity in poetry, arguing that showy technique (polysyllables, intricate syntax, 'yards of adjectives') only 'slows a reader's understanding.'

Credit: C. Fishel


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying