jodi lynn picoult (born 19 may 1966 in nesconsent, long island, new york) is an american author. picoult comes from what she calls a "non-practicing jewish family". she was raised in her hometown in long island, but moved to the u.s. state of new hampshire when she was 13 years old. she went to princeton, a university in the u.s. state of new jersey, where she studied writing and graduated from in 1987. she also went to harvard university, where she earned a master's degree in education. she had many jobs, as a guest writer for magazines like "seventeen", to editing textbooks and teaching eighth grade english. she published her first novel "songs of the humpback whale" in 1992. her first book to debut as a new york times best-seller was her 2007 novel "nineteen minutes"; the following year her novel "change of heart" became her second novel to debut as #1 on the new york times best seller's list. her last novel to be featured on the list was "handle with care" (2009). four of her novels, "the pact" (1998), "plain truth" (2000), "the tenth circle" (2006) and most recently, "my sister's keeper", which published as a book in 2004 but released as a movie in 2009. she was awarded the new england bookseller award for fiction in 2003. picoult currently has some 14 million copies of her books in print worldwide. in addition to writing novels, picoult had written for dc comics' third volume of wonder woman in 2007; she only wrote 5 issues. she lives with her husband, tim van leer, their three children and pets in hanover, new hampshire.