Annie Weatherwax is an artist and author, most notable for her breakout novel, All We Had. [1] [2] Weatherwax is a known visual artist [3] who describes her artistic voice as "comic realism." [4] [5] She often writes about social justice [6] and the relationship between visual arts and writing. [7] [8] She has been influenced by the work of Flannery O'Connor, Alice Neel, Lorrie Moore, Roy Litchenstein, and Andy Warhol. [4]
Weatherwax has dyslexia and had a hard time in school growing up. She says, "I struggled a lot when I was kid. I'm an exceedingly slow reader. I read a lot, because I love it so much, but I definitely struggle with it." [7] Despite her struggle with dyslexia, Weatherwax went on to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design. [9] [10]
Weatherwax began her artistic career as a visual artist, working professionally sculpting superheroes and cartoon characters for Nickelodeon, DC Comics, Warner Brothers, and Pixar. [11] She also paints. [9]
Her book, All We Had, published in August 2014, [12] was a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award. [11] [13] [14] The novel was also a pick for Oprah's Book Club [15] and the Washingtonian's "Top 10 Books for August 2014." [16] All We Had was optioned by Katie Holmes, who adapted the story into a movie in her directorial debut. [17] [18] [19]
As an author, she won the 2009 Robert Olen Butler Prize for Fiction, [9] [20] and her work has been published in The New York Times , The Sun Magazine , Ploughshares, [21] The Southern Review, [22] among others. [11] In 2018, she was awarded a fellowship from Yaddo for her writing. [23] [24]