Caroline Paul | |
Birth Date: | 29 July 1963 |
Birth Place: | New York City, U.S. |
Occupation: | Writer |
Alma Mater: | Stanford University |
Relatives: | Alexandra Paul (identical twin) |
Caroline Paul (born July 29, 1963, in New York City) is an American writer of fiction and non-fiction.
Caroline Paul was raised in New York City; Paris, France; and Cornwall, Connecticut. Her father was an investment banker, her mother a social worker. She was educated in journalism and documentary film at Stanford University.[1]
Paul volunteered as a journalist at Berkeley public radio station KPFA, then in 1988, joined the San Francisco Fire Department, as one of the first women hired by the department.[1] She worked most of her career on the search and rescue team.[2]
Her first book was the nonfiction memoir Fighting Fire, published in 1998. It was a finalist at the Northern California Book Awards and an alternate selection for the Book of the Month Club. Her second, the 2006 historical novel East Wind, Rain is based on the Niihau incident, a historical event in which a Japanese pilot crash-landed on the private Hawaiian island of Niihau, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. "When it's over, we don't want to leave," said the New York Times review of the book.[3] Lost Cat, A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology was published in 2013 and illustrated by her partner, artist Wendy MacNaughton. It details Paul and MacNaughton's high-tech search for their cat.[4] The PBS Newshour described the book as "A thoughtful, kind and funny story about the love people can have for their pets and the weird places that this love and accompanying devotion can take them. But it also travels beyond the realm of human-pet relationships, offering commentary on all relationships and the roles of those we love, and sometimes don't love, in our lives."[5]
In 2016, Paul published The Gutsy Girl, Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure.[6]
In 2018 Paul collaborated with tea expert Sebastian Beckwith, and published A Little Tea Book.[7]
In 2018, Paul and MacNaughton were married. The two separated in 2023.
Caroline Paul's identical twin is Baywatch actress Alexandra Paul.[8] Due to Alexandra's fame on Baywatch, Caroline Paul was often mistaken for her twin sister even when in full firefighter gear.[9] This prompted her to write the short book Almost Her, which examines the peculiarities of fame and the science of twins. The two sisters were featured in a People magazine feature on twins, "Seeing Double," in 1998.[10]