Marya Hornbacher is an American novelist and memoirist who wrote Wasted, a highly acclaimed memoir about her struggle with anorexia and bulimia. Her first novel, The Center of Winter, was also well received. Hornbacher continues to write and plans to release a memoir about the aftermath of Wasted. She is also an award-winning journalist and creative writing educator.
Marya Hornbacher is an American novelist and memoirist. Her debut book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (1998), was highly acclaimed and innovative in her honest account of the everyday horrors of living with an eating disorder. It was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and has sold over a million copies in the United States alone. In 2005, Marya Hornbacher published her first novel, The Center of Winter, about a family dealing with her father’s suicide. Written from the perspectives of three very different but equally compelling characters, Hornbacher’s novel was also well received by critics and readers alike.
Marya Hornbacher was born on April 4, 1974 in Walnut Creek, California but raised in Minnesota, where The Center of Winter is set. Her parents worked in the theater as actors and directors. In Wasted, Hornbacher says her struggle with poor body image began at age five, and that she was bulimic at age nine and anorexic at 13. She also developed problems with drugs, alcohol, and other forms of delinquency at a very young age. Hornbacher spent her youth in and out of hospitals, and finally had a week to live after hitting a low of 52 pounds while she attended American University in Washington, DC
Luckily, Hornbacher survived and began work towards recovery. He wrote Wasted at the age of 21, blowing critics away with his commanding narrative voice, brutal honesty and insight despite his young age. His memoir is poignant and frightening in its description of eating disorders, but it also offers hope through his own steps toward recovery. Hornbacher also maintains a website at www.hornbacher.com where readers can discuss his books, publish their own work, and talk with Marya Hornbacher and each other about recovery or any other topic that arises.
Hornbacher continued to struggle with her eating disorder and other self-destructive behaviors following the publication of Wasted, and broke up with her first husband due to alcohol and drug abuse issues. She has been sober since 2001. She remarried another recovered addict.
Hornbacher currently lives in Minnesota and focuses on his writing. Her next planned effort is a memoir covering the aftermath of the one discussed in Wasted, but she also plans to write more fiction. Hornbacher is also an award-winning journalist and creative writing educator for adults.
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