Laura Lippman


Laura Lippman is an American journalist and author of over 20 detective fiction novels. Her novels have won multiple awards, including an Agatha Award, seven Anthony Awards, two Barry Awards, an Edgar Award, a Gumshoe Award, a Macavity Award, a Nero Award, two Shamus Awards, and two Strand Critics Award.

Biography

Lippman was born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Columbia, Maryland. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman, Jr., a writer at The Baltimore Sun, and Madeline Mabry Lippman, now retired as a school librarian for the Baltimore City Public School System. Her paternal grandfather was Jewish, and the remainder of her ancestry is Scots-Irish. Lippman was raised Presbyterian. She attended high school in Columbia, Maryland, where she was the captain of the Wilde Lake High School It's Academic team. She also participated in several dramatic productions, including Finian's Rainbow, The Lark, and Barefoot in the Park. She graduated from Wilde Lake High School in 1977.
Lippman is a former reporter for the now defunct San Antonio Light and The Baltimore Sun. She is best known for writing a series of novels set in Baltimore and featuring Tess Monaghan, a reporter turned private investigator. Lippman's works have won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Nero, Gumshoe and Shamus awards. What the Dead Know, was the first of her books to make the New York Times Best Seller list, and was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award.
In addition to the Tess Monaghan novels, Lippman has written works independent of that character. Her novel Every Secret Thing was adapted as a 2014 movie starring Diane Lane. Her novel Lady in the Lake was adapted as a limited series for Apple TV.
Lippman lives in the South Baltimore neighborhood of Federal Hill and frequently writes in the neighborhood coffee shop Spoons. In addition to writing, she teaches at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, just outside Baltimore. In January 2007, Lippman taught at the 3rd Annual Writers in Paradise at Eckerd College. In March 2013, she was the guest of honor at Left Coast Crime.

Representation in other media

The character Bunk is shown to be reading one of her books, In a Strange City, in episode eight of the first season of The Wire. Lippman appeared in a scene in the first episode of the last season of The Wire as a reporter working in the Baltimore Sun newsroom.

Personal life

In 2000, Lippman began dating and soon living with David Simon, another former Baltimore Sun reporter. He became the creator and an executive producer of the HBO series The Wire. They lived in a "narrow brick row house", in Baltimore's Federal Hill neighborhood.
In 2006, Lippman married Simon in a ceremony officiated by filmmaker John Waters. She had been married to another man for seven years, which ended in a "difficult divorce." Simon had been married twice before. Lippman and Simon have a daughter who was born in 2010.
Lippman and Simon separated in 2020, divorcing in 2024. The two continue to co-parent their daughter.

Awards

What the Dead Know was a New York Times Best Seller.
In 2014, Lippman won the inaugural Pinckley Prize for a Distinguished Body of Work.
YearTitleAwardResult
1998Baltimore BluesShamus Award for Best First Novel
1998Charm CityAnthony Award for Best Paperback Original
1998Charm CityEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback OriginalWon
1998Charm CityMacavity Award for Best First Novel
1998Charm CityShamus Award for Best Paperback OriginalWon
1999Butchers HillAgatha Award for Best NovelWon
1999Butchers HillAnthony Award for Best Paperback OriginalWon
1999Butchers HillEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original
1999Butchers HillMacavity Award for Best Novel
1999Butchers HillShamus Award for Best Paperback Original
1999In Big TroubleAgatha Award for Best Novel
2000In Big TroubleAnthony Award for Best Paperback OriginalWon
2000In Big TroubleEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original
2000In Big TroubleShamus Award for Best Paperback OriginalWon
2000Nero AwardWon
2003Every Secret ThingHammett Prize
2003Shamus Award for Best Novel
2004By a Spider’s ThreadAgatha Award for Best Novel
2004Every Secret ThingAnthony Award for Best NovelWon
2004Every Secret ThingBarry Award for Best NovelWon
2005By a Spider’s ThreadAnthony Award for Best Novel
2005By a Spider’s ThreadEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel
2006To the Power of ThreeAnthony Award for Best Novel
2006To the Power of ThreeGumshoe Award for Best MysteryWon
2007No Good DeedsAnthony Award for Best NovelWon
2008 from Dead Man's HandAnthony Award for Best Short StoryWon
2008What the Dead KnowAnthony Award for Best NovelWon
2008What the Dead KnowBarry Award for Best NovelWon
2008What the Dead KnowGold Dagger Award
2008What the Dead KnowMacavity Award for Best NovelWon
2009Life SentencesStrand Critics Award for Best Mystery Novel
2009 in Hardly Knew HerMacavity Award for Best Short Story
2011I’d Know You AnywhereAnthony Award for Best Novel
2011I’d Know You AnywhereEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel
2015After I'm GoneAnthony Award for Best NovelWon
2015After I'm GoneStrand Critics Award for Best Mystery NovelWon
2017Wilde LakeAnthony Award for Best Novel
2017Wilde LakeBarry Award for Best Novel
2017Wilde LakeMacavity Award for Best Mystery Novel
2019SunburnAnthony Award for Best Novel
2019SunburnStrand Critics Award for Best Mystery NovelWon
2020Lady in the LakeAnthony Award for Best Novel
2020Lady in the LakeMacavity Award for Best Mystery Novel
2020Lady in the LakeStrand Critics Award for Best Mystery Novel
2021Dream GirlStrand Critics Award for Best Mystery Novel
2022Dream GirlCWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Publications

Tess Monaghan series

Short stories

  • "Orphans' Court"
  • "Ropa Vieja"
  • "The Shoeshine Man's Regrets"

    Standalone works

Novels

Short story collections

  • Baltimore Noir.
  • Hardly Knew Her: Stories.
  • Seasonal Work: Stories.

    Memoir

  • Summer of Fall.