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Laurie Hertzel

Biography

Laurie Hertzel

A lifelong journalist, Laurie Hertzel spent 15 years as the books editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune and now reviews for the Boston Globe, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. She is a past president of the National Book Critics Circle and has taught at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and The Ohio State University. In 2023, she received the Kerlan Award in recognition of exceptional support for children’s literature. She is a Distinguished Professor of Practice in the low-residency MFA program in narrative nonfiction at the University of Georgia.

Laurie Hertzel

Books by Laurie Hertzel

Ghosts of Fourth Street: My Family, a Death, and the Hills of Duluth
by Laurie Hertzel - Memoir, Nonfiction

Every family has its stories and secrets. Laurie Hertzel’s family had more than its share. At an early age, Laurie --- the seventh of the ten Hertzel children --- took on the challenge of sorting them out. Not old enough to be one of the Big Kids, yet too old to be with the Three Little Kids, she spent most of her time alone, reading, wandering and observing her family as they moved around her in their house in Duluth. Though her parents were not warm, there were moments of closeness in those years, but everything shattered after the sudden death of Laurie’s oldest sibling, 18-year-old Bobby, when she was just nine years old. Moving back and forth in time, Laurie reflects on Bobby’s death and what happens to a family’s story when no one can talk about a tragedy and its toll.