An American novelist and newspaper article writer. She has two best-selling short story books, Seabiscuit: An American Legend and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. They have sold more than ten million copies and were made into two films. She explained how her vertigo and chronic fatigue syndrome kept her from finishing her education in her 2003 prize-winning piece "A Sudden Illness," which was published in The New Yorker.