Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1960. Her early life mirrored the instability she later chronicled in The Glass Castle. Despite moving constantly and enduring extreme poverty, she excelled academically and earned a degree from Barnard College in New York City. Walls went on to work as a journalist for New York Magazine, Esquire, and MSNBC.com, where her sharp, insightful writing gained national attention.

Her memoir The Glass Castle (2005) spent over eight years on The New York Times bestseller list and was adapted into a feature film starring Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson. Walls later published Half Broke Horses, inspired by her grandmother’s life, and The Silver Star, both of which explore themes of perseverance and unconventional family bonds. Today, Jeannette Walls lives in rural Virginia with her husband, where she continues to write and speak about resilience, forgiveness, and finding strength in imperfection.