20 Facts About Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003.

Jodi Picoult writes popular fiction which can be characterised as family saga.

Jodi Picoult is often characterised as an author of chick-lit.

Over her writing career, Jodi Picoult has covered a wide range of controversial or moral issues, including abortion, the Holocaust, assisted suicide, race relations, eugenics, LGBT rights, fertility issues, religion, the death penalty, and school shootings.

Jodi Picoult was born in Nesconset, New York, on Long Island and has one younger brother.

Jodi Picoult graduated from Smithtown High School East in June 1983.

Jodi Picoult wrote her first story at age five, titled "The Lobster Which Misunderstood".

Jodi Picoult earned a master's degree in education from Harvard University.

Jodi Picoult has two honorary Doctor of Letters degrees; one from Dartmouth College in 2010, the other from the University of New Haven in 2012.

In 2016, Jodi Picoult was selected to be Princeton's Class Day Speaker before commencement.

In November 2019, Jodi Picoult participated in the criticism of Brooke Nelson, a college student who was mentioned in her local newspaper as saying she thought that author Sarah Dessen's YA novels were not suitable for the Common Read program run by Northern State University, Aberdeen, and had instead advocated for the inclusion of Just Mercy, a memoir by civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson.

In 2016, Jodi Picoult joined the advisory board of Vida: Women in Literary Arts, a "non-profit feminist organization committed to creating transparency around the lack of gender parity in the literary landscape and to amplifying historically-marginalized voices, including people of color; writers with disabilities; and queer, trans and gender nonconforming individuals".

Jodi Picoult's website says that VIDA: Women in Literary Arts is a research-driven organization.

Jodi Picoult was a member of the inaugural Writers Council of the National Writing Project in 2013, an organization which recognizes the "universality of writing as a communicative tool and helps teachers enhance student writing".

Jodi Picoult was a spokesperson for Positive Tracks, which empowers young people to fundraise through the power of athletics and partners with other charitable organizations.

Jodi Picoult is a member of the Advisory Committee for the New Hampshire Coalition Against the Death Penalty, an organization that successfully sought to end the death penalty in the state of New Hampshire through outreach, education and advocacy.

Jodi Picoult was the co-founder, with Marjorie Rose, of the Trumbull Hall Troupe in 2004 as a means of providing children with a fun, educational theatre experience.

On January 21,2017, Jodi Picoult spoke at the New Hampshire Women's Day of Action and Unity in support of the Women's March on Washington.

In March 2023,20 of Jodi Picoult's books were removed from Florida's Martin County School District for review of potentially inappropriate content.

Jodi Picoult has been married, since 1989, to Timothy Warren van Leer, whom she met in college.