Blue+Balliett

Blue Balliet was born in New York and as she grew up in Manhattan, she liked to wander through museums, namely the [|Metropolitan Museum of Art] and the [|Frick Museum], which both contained a few [|Vermeer] paintings. When she graduated from Brown University with a degree in art history, she got a job on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, as a chef, waitress, art gallery curator, and a writer. Blue says she "tried to sit down and become a writer at 21". She had a hard time finding her voice, and she could not have written Chasing Vermeer "without all the living that preceded it".

Blue found love on Nantucket Island. She and her husband were married and had their two children there. When their kids started school they moved to Chicago. Blue began teaching third grade at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. She got her inspiration for Chasing Vermeer when one day, she and her students decided to go on a quest to find what art was all about - of course, on accident.

It took Balliet 5 years to finish writing Chasing Vermeer while teaching full-time. She then wrote a sequel, The Wright 3. She is still living in Chicago.

"Blue Balliett" online image 
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