Claire Cook

Claire Cook (born February 14, 1955) is an American writer and public speaker.

Career
Claire Cook is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 Amazon bestselling author of 21 books with the overarching theme of reinvention for 40-to-forever women. After teaching school for sixteen years, she wrote her first novel (Ready to Fall) in her minivan outside her daughter's swim practice when she was 45 years old. At 50, she walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the film adaptation of her second novel, Must Love Dogs, which was made into a major motion picture starring Diane Lane and John Cusack. In 2014, she started her own publishing company, Marshbury Beach Books. Cook's first non-fiction book, Never Too Late: Your Roadmap to Reinvention (Without Getting Lost Along the Way), shares her journey and tips for midlife women reinventing their lives. Her books have been translated into 14 languages.

Education
Cook graduated from Scituate High School. She was a Newhouse Scholar at Syracuse University, graduating cum laude with a dual major in Film and Creative Writing. She spent her senior year at Harvard University as a visiting student, where she studied fiction with Robert Stuart Fitzgerald, who translated The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Personal
Cook was born in Alexandria, Virginia to Daniel Joseph Cook and Margaret Lavelle Gibson. Her mother met her father when she taught his Business English class at Worcester Business College after they both finished serving in World War II. Cook's mother died suddenly of sepsis days before Cook's eleventh birthday. Her father worked for The Boston Globe, retiring several years before his death in 1992. Claire Cook is the second oldest, and oldest daughter, of eight siblings.

Cook married Richard (Jake) Jacobucci in 1978. They have two children. Cook and her husband reside in St. Simons Island, GA.

Speaking engagements

 * Amelia Island Book Festival
 * Atlanta Writers Conference
 * California Women's Conference
 * Cape Cod Writers Conference
 * Decatur Book Festival
 * Denmark Literary Festival
 * Claire Cook director's chair from Must Love Dogs movie.png for Success International Conference
 * Emory University
 * Massachusetts Women's Conference
 * Missouri Writers Guild Conference
 * Pennsylvania Women's Conference
 * Savannah Book Festival
 * South Carolina Book Festival
 * South County Hospital's 9th Annual Women's Wellness Day
 * Tennessee Williams Literary Festival
 * University of Connecticut