Alice Seabold Biography

Sebold was born in Madison, Wisconsin. She grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and graduated from Great Valley High School in Malvern, Pennsylvania in 1980. She then enrolled in SyracuseUniversity. In the early hours of May 8, 1981, she was raped while walking home through a park off campus. Her attacker dragged her into a tunnel and brutally sodomized her, even urinating on her and causingsevere injuries.[1]She reported the crime to the police, who took her statement and investigated, but could not identify any suspects.[2] Eventually, with the help of her family, she found the courageto help police identify her assailant and even took to the witness stand during his trial where he was convicted. [3]
Sebold returned home to Pennsylvania to live with her family for the summerbefore beginning her sophomore year at Syracuse. After some months at home Sebold returned to Syracuse to finish her bachelor's degree and to study writing. On October 5, 1981, while walking down a streetnear the Syracuse campus, she recognized her rapist and reported him to police; she later testified against him, and he received the maximum sentence.[2]
Following graduation from Syracuse, Seboldwent to the University of Houston[4] in Texas for graduate school. She did not complete her graduate studies, likely due to drug use. Then she moved to Manhattan and lived there for 10 years. She heldseveral waitressing jobs and tried to pursue her writing career.[5] Sebold wanted to write her story through poetry, but that, and attempts at writing a novel, did not come to fruition. She used heroinrecreationally for two years, but claims she never became addicted.[6] Sebold recounted her substance abuse to students at an Evening of Fiction workshop by saying that, "I did a lot of things that Iam not particularly proud of and that I can’t believe that I did."[7]
Sebold left the city and moved to Southern California, where she became a caretaker of an arts colony, earning $386 a month...