Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott is the author and first-person narrator of the spiritual guide and memoir, Help, Thanks, Wow. She is an American novelist, memoirist, progressive political activist, public speaker, and teacher of writing.

In Help, Thanks, Wow, as in the majority of Lamott’s nonfiction works, she relates personal anecdotes and stories as a way of illustrating her perspectives on the meaning of prayer. Lamott was born in San Francisco to Kenneth Lamott, also a writer, and Nikki Lamott, in 1954. She describes her childhood as a struggle and her family as dysfunctional and alcoholic.

Common themes in Lamott’s works, both fiction and nonfiction, include alcoholism, motherhood, spirituality, Christianity, faith, the importance of community, and storytelling as a means of healing and progress. Her principle focus in the narrative of Help, Thanks, Wow is on an individual’s connection with a higher power, and the peace that...