Lorrie Moore, born Marie Lorena Moore on February 13, 1957 inGlens Falls, New York, was the second of four children. The daughter of an insurance executive and a former nurse turned housewife,Moore excelled in her studies and earned a Regents scholarship, which allowed her to enter St. Lawrence University early. While at St. Lawrence,Moore was the recipient of a Paul L. Wolfe Memorial Prize for literature and was also awarded First Prize in a Seventeen magazine short story contest for her story, "Raspberries." She graduated summa cum laude from St. Lawrence in 1978.

After a brief stint as a paralegal in Manhattan, Moore entered the master of fine arts program atCornell University in 1980. Over the next few years,Moore saw several of her stories accepted by such national publications as Ms, Fiction International, and Story Quarterly. In 1983, Moore sent her collection Self-Help, which comprised her master's thesis...