Ooh La La (Callan)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1954-55
• Raised—Stamford, Connecticut, USA
• Education—B.A., Bard College; M.F.A., University of California-Los Angeles
• Currently—lives in Cap Cod, Massachusetts


Although raised in the U.S.A., Jamie Cat Callan grew up under the tutelage of her French grandmother. She has traveled to France many times, lived in France, and fallen in love with all things French. That fascination led Callan, eventually, to publish three books about French women and "their secrets to joie de vivre, timeless beauty, love, romance...and lingerie." In the space of four years, from 2009-2013, Callan published French Women Don't Sleep Alone; Bonjour, Happiness; and Ooh La La.

Callan earned her B.A. from Bard College and an M.F.A. in Screenwriting from the University of California-Los Angeles. Her writing career took off at 26 when she published her first book under a New York State grant from the Council of the Arts Program. That book, Over the Hill at Fourteen sold nearly half-a million copies and became a Scholastic Book Club selection.

Over the next five years, Callan published two more young adult books including The Young and the Soapy (1984) and Just Too Cool (1987).

Since then her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Modern Love column, Missouri Review, American Letters & Commentary, and Best American Erotica.

Her book Hooking Up or Holding Out was issued in 2006, followed by her three advice books on the style and love lives of French women.

Callan has taught writing at Wesleyan University's Graduate Liberal Studies Program and conducted writing workshops at Grub Street in Boston and through New York University. She lives with her husband on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. (Adapted from the publisher and Cervena Barva Press.)