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Mary Doria Russell grew up near Chicago in the 1950s,
a time when the Cubs were even worse than they are today. Without the
dose of reality most people get from lousy grades, she continued to go
to school until she earned a perfectly useless PhD in paleoanthropology
at the University of Michigan in 1983. Against all odds, she managed to
get a job teaching human gross anatomy at Case Western Reserve University
in the 1980s, but eventually got fed up with Academe and left to write.
Her first two novels, The Sparrow, and Children of God
are considered classics of science fiction and remain steady sellers,
translated into over a dozen languages. Both books struck a deep chord
with readers for their respectful but unblinking consideration of fundamental
religious questions. She has received eight national and international
literary awards and was a finalist for several others, which has had the
same lamentable effect on her behavior as getting good grades: she has
continued to write, and Random House is bringing her third book out next
month.
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