Joyce Maynard was born on November 5, 1953. She first came to national attention in 1973 with the publication of her New York Times cover story An Eighteen-Year-Old Looks Back on Life, which she wrote while a freshman at Yale University. Since then, she has been a reporter and columnist for The New York Times, a syndicated newspaper columnist, and a regular contributor to NPR. Her writing have also been published in numerous magazines including O, The Oprah Magazine; Newsweek; The New York Times Magazine; Forbes; Salon; San Francisco Magazine; and USA Weekly. She has written both fiction and nonfiction works including The Usual Rules, The Cloud Chamber, Internal Combustion, Labor Day, and… her memoirs Looking Back and At Home in the World. Her novel To Die For was adapted into a movie starring Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon and Joaquin Phoenix.