Published: February 2007
Barbara Delinsky is a woman of many names and careers. Born in Newton as Barbara Greenberg, Delinsky earned a graduate degree in sociology from Boston College, conducted research for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and was a photographer for a local newspaper. Delinsky says “by fluke” she read a newspaper feature about female novelists and was inspired to give it a try, writing at first under the pen names Billie Douglass and Bonnie Drake. Her first novel appeared in 1981. By the mid-1990s her books regularly made the best-sellers list. As her paperback novels became richer and more complex, she won respect from mainstream critics. Millions now read her books, which she describes as “character-driven studies of marriage, parenthood, sibling rivalry, and friendship.”
Among her 16 best-sellers is the nonfiction Uplift: Secrets From the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors (Atria, 2001), which deals with her experiences with two bouts of breast cancer and conversations with others who have faced the disease.
- Barbara Delinsky’s blog
- “ExpandedBooks” interview on Youtube with Barbara Delinsky talking about her newest novel Family Tree
- Biography and Q&A with Delinsky at Barnes & Noble site
- Claire White converses with Delinsky in a Writers Write interview
- “Uplift Notes,” a breast cancer chat room sponsored by Delinsky
