Biography
Lippmann was born in
Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in
Baltimore, Maryland. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman Jr., a well known and respected writer at the
Baltimore Sun
, and Madeline Lippman, a retired school librarian for the
Baltimore City Public School System. She attended high school in
Columbia, Maryland, where she was the captain of the
Wilde Lake High School It's Academic
team.
Lippman is a former reporter for the (now defunct)
San Antonio Light
, and then for the
Baltimore Sun
. She is best known for writing a series of novels set in Baltimore and featuring
Tess Monaghan, a reporter (like Lippman herself) turned
private investigator. Lippman's works have won the
Agatha,
Anthony,
Edgar,
Nero,
Gumshoe and
Shamus awards. Her 2007 release,
What the Dead Know
, was the first of her books to make the
New York Times bestseller list, and was shortlisted for the
Crime Writer's Association Dagger Award. In addition to the Tess Monaghan novels, Lippman wrote 2003's
Every Secret Thing
, which has been optioned for the movies by Academy Award-winning actor
Frances McDormand.
Lippman lives in the South Baltimore neighborhood of
Federal Hill, Baltimore and frequently writes in the neighborhood coffee shop Spoons. In addition to writing, she teaches at
Goucher College in
Towson, Maryland, just outside of
Baltimore. In January, 2007, she taught at the 3rd Annual Writers in Paradise at
Eckerd College.
Lippman is married to
David Simon, another former
Baltimore Sun
reporter, and creator and an executive producer of the HBO series
The Wire
. She appeared on the first scene of the first episode of the last season of
The Wire
as a reporter working in the Baltimore Sun newsroom.
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Works
- Baltimore Blues
- Charm City
- Butchers Hill
- In Big Trouble
- The Sugar House
- In a Strange City
- Ropa Vieja
(contributed a short story, along with Elmore Leonard and several other authors)
- The Last Place
- Every Secret Thing
- Like A Charm
(contributed a short story, along with Karin Slaughter and several other authors)
- By A Spider's Thread
- To The Power of Three
- No Good Deeds
- What the Dead Know
- Another Thing to Fall
- Hardly Knew Her
(collection of short stories)
- Life Sentences
References
- Interview: Author Laura Lippman on "Another Thing to Fall"