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Elaine Neil Orr

Goodreads Author

Born

Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Website

http://www.elaineneilorr.net/

Genre

Fiction, Memoir, Nonfiction

Influences

Henry James, Walt Whitman, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, Sena Jeter ...more

Member Since

February 2013

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After surviving end stage renal disease in my early forties with the gift of two transplants (kidney and pancreas), I took a right turn in my writing life: from scholarship to creative writing. Because I was born and grew up in Nigeria, my memoir and fiction are trans-Atlantic. I am keenly interested in place, not as a backdrop for stories but as a character. What I love most about writing is the practice of it. Writing, I am meditating. "How exactly do I describe the feeling of heartbreak? Does the heart really hurt?" "When my character enters this river, what is she thinking?" The normal world is lost to me; I am in a transcendent realm of creation. Being there is one of the greatest joys I know. I love being alone in nature: walking, cat ...more

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Elaine Neil Orr’s books

Average rating: 3.85 · 1,742 ratings · 369 reviews · 9 distinct works • Similar authors

	Swimming Between Worlds 3.96 avg rating — 800 ratings — published 2018 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Different Sun 3.65 avg rating — 747 ratings — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dancing Woman 4.23 avg rating — 74 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gods of Noonday: A White Girl's African Life 3.96 avg rating — 75 ratings — published 2003 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mothers and Strangers: Essays on Motherhood from the New South by Samia Serageldin (Editor), Lee Smith (Editor), Steve White (Narrator) 3.88 avg rating — 65 ratings — published 2019 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Becoming: What Makes a Woman by Jill McCabe Johnson (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Sibyl James (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Marilyn Bates (Contributor) 4.70 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Writing Out of Limbo: International Childhoods, Global Nomads and Third Culture Kids by Gene H. Bell-Villada (Editor), Nina Sichel, Faith Eidse 4.29 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 2011 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tillie Olsen and a Feminist Spiritual Vision really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1987 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Subject to Negotiation: Reading Feminist Criticism and American Women's Fictions 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1997 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Elaine is Currently Reading

Elaine is currently reading

Black White and Jewish

by Rebecca Walker (Goodreads Author)

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Sep 30, 2013 06:00AM

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White Dog Fell from the Sky

by Eleanor Morse (Goodreads Author)

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Here and Now: Letters (2008-2011)

by Paul Auster

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Apr 28, 2013 07:58PM

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Elaine rated a book it was amazing The Baddest Girl on the Planet by Heather Frese (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is a hugely engaging novel. It's very tongue in cheek and great fun to read but it's also serious, dealing with a woman's life as it is shaped by early childhood bullying, an early pregnancy and marriage, and divorce, followed by more iffy choic ...more
Jun 19, 2025 12:51PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Baddest Girl on the Planet by Heather Frese. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Baddest Girl on the Planet by Heather Frese <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Elaine rated a book it was amazing The Anatomy of Exile by Zeeva Bukai	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Anatomy of Exile by Zeeva Bukai is one of the most startlingly beautiful and enlightening books I have read in the last ten years. It follows an Israeli and a Palestinian family through tumultuous moments of intertwined history (beginning in the ...more
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Quotes by Elaine Neil Orr (?)

“Time is only the river of memory.”
― Elaine Neil Orr

2 likes

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2013 Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC!	2808	780	May 31, 2013 09:02PM
Reading with Style: Spring 2013 Rws Completed Tasks - Spring 2013	920	141	May 31, 2013 09:03PM
All About Books: What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations, reviews Part 2	10004	1060	Feb 23, 2023 07:22PM
Turn of a Page: Fourth of July Spell It Out S&S Challenge	66	106	Jul 18, 2023 04:22PM
Turn of a Page: International Friendship Day Cover Hunt	44	100	Aug 07, 2023 09:48AM
Turn of a Page: Caraina's Show Ring (Completed)	53	11	Aug 23, 2023 08:05PM
Turn of a Page: One Cat, Nine Lives S&S Challenge	75	174	Aug 30, 2023 05:14PM

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Elaine’s Quotes

“Jesus thrown everything off balance.”
― Flannery O'Connor

9 likes

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver

tags: poetry

9269 likes

“The farmhouse sat on a rise at the end of a long dirt road, in a clearing surrounded by fruit trees and ninety acres of pines. It was painted white, and peeling, and some former hippie tenant had painted a mandala on the wall just inside the door with fine-point Magic Marker. I painted over it, but it bled through, again and again. I finally left it there, a pale and pastel version of itself, hanging ghostlike in the hall.”
― Marjorie Hudson, Accidental Birds of the Carolinas

tags: fiction, pen-hemingway, short-story

3 likes

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Elaine’s Year In Books

Elaine Neil Orr’s Followers (131)

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Elaine Neil Orr

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