CAROL WESTON

Hey! Thanks for finding me!

I’m the author of 16 books and have been "Dear Carol" at Girls' Life for almost 30 years! My most recent is SPEED OF LIFE. My first, GIRLTALK: All the Stuff Your Sister Never Told You, came out in a dozen languages and has been in print since 1985.

Click for VERY PERSONAL ESSAYS and HALL OF FAME PHOTOS. I’ve had 65+ Letters to the Editor in the New York Times on everything from Gabriel García Márquez’s posthumous novel to reading to kids to cats and inmates to pink with a wink. (You may have to scroll.) I teach at the New York Society Library and am on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. See? I did a recent Zoom to Yale Women and am scheming to run a workshop in France. (Stay tuned!)

SPEED OF LIFE came straight from the heart, as I explain on TikTok. Here’s the first page. Julia Alvarez said: “You won’t want to put it down.” The New York Times called it "perceptive, funny and moving... I laughed out loud and I teared up while reading this novel.” Heck, I teared up reading that review! Four starred reviews: Kirkus, School Library Journal, PW, Booklist! YALSA. New York Post: "Required Reading."  Amazon—or listen at Audible, Libro.fm. For class or clubs: Speed of Life Discussion Guide.

AVA AND PIP, AVA AND TACO CAT, and AVA XOX are my funny diaries of a fifth grade Ava who is obsessed with palindromes. The New York Times says it’s "a love letter to language" and "perfectly captures the complexities of sisterhood." Click here.

Do you write? Here’s one-minute on how I got my start plus essays in Yale Alumni Magazine, Publishers Weekly, a Writer Experience podcast, and a recent interview.

Bio: Byram Hills HS in Armonk, NY; Twelfth grade in France (SYA); French/Spanish comp lit major at Yale (summa cum laude); M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury. TV: Today, The View, Oprah, Squawk Box, NY1, Twin Cities Live, CNN Español…

The Diary of Melanie Martin (my four-book Knopf series) is about Melanie, 10, and her brother Matt the Brat, as they travel to Italy, Spain, Holland and host a friend in NYC.

Husband Rob Ackerman is a playwright and screenwriter who spent 25 years at SNL. The New Yorker liked Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson. His new movie is Stargazer. Daughter Lizzi and her husband started a pancake business, Birch Benders: Today Show, Forbes. And daughter Emme? We just celebrated her wedding!