Essayist Phyllis Theroux has long captivated readers with her pitch-perfect rendering of the inner lives of American women. The Journal Keeper is a memoir of six years in her life. A natural storyteller, Theroux slips her arm companionably into yours, like an old friend going for a stroll. But Theroux's stride is long, her eye sharp, and she swings easily between subjects that occupy us all: love, loneliness, growing old, financial worries, spiritual growth, and watching her remarkable mother prepare for death. Theroux began to keep a journal when she was in distress. It saved her life by helping her to see circumstances more clearly. With nuggets of wisdom, The Journal Keeper is a rich feast from a writing life--with a surprising romantic twist. But it was not until Theroux sat down to edit her journals for publication did she realize, in her words, "that a hand much larger and more knowing than my own was guiding my life and pen across the page." She makes a good case for this being true for us all.
Phyllis Theroux is an essayist, columnist, teacher and author. She is the critically acclaimed author of "California and Other States of Grace", a memoir, two collections of essays, "Peripheral Visions" and "Nightlights: Bedtime Stories for Parents in the Dark", an anthology, "The Book of Eulogies", and a children's book, "Serefina Under the Circumstances". In 2002, a novella, "Giovanni's Light", was published at Christmas. Her newest book, "The Journal Keeper: A Memoir", will be published by Grove Atlantic in March 2010.
A contributing essayist on the "Newshour with Jim Lehrer" from 1992 - 1996, Theroux's columns, op-ed pieces, reviews and feature stories have appeared in various newspapers including The New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and International Herald Tribune. In the l980's, she was a monthly columnist for Parents Magazine. In the l990's she wrote a monthly column for House Beautiful. Her essays continue to be anthologized in numerous collections.
Following the publication of "The Book of Eulogies" in l997, Theroux created "The Great American Portraits Program", which was sponsored by the Library of Congress and toured various cities in the United States. She has been a guest professor and lecturer at numerous forums, colleges and universities.
The founder of Nightwriters, which conducts writing and creativity seminars in the United States and abroad, Theroux occasionally conducts one-on-one editorial seminars with individual writers who come to spend time working in her writer's cottage in Ashland, Virginia.
A community activist and educator, in 1989, she formed a non-profit organization, "Winners in Grade School", to attract grants and support an inner-city Washington, D. C. elementary school where she taught creative writing to fifth graders between 1989 - 1993. During that time she created a consortium of private schools to be partners in education with the school.
A graduate of Manhattanville College, with a B.A. in Philosophy, she lives with her husband, Ragan Phillips, in Ashland, Virginia.
