Allegra Huston

Allegra Huston (born 26 August 1964) is a British-American author, editor, and writer based in Taos, New Mexico.

She is the author of Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found and the novel A Stolen Summer (Say My Name in hardback), How to Edit and Be Edited. She is the co-founder of Imaginative Storm Writing Workshops with James Navé; they are the co-authors of Write What You Don't Know: 10 Steps to Writing with Confidence, Energy, and Flow and How to Read for an Audience.

She is also the screenwriter and producer of the short film Good Luck, Mr. Gorski.

Early life

Huston was born on 26 August 1964 in London, England. Her mother was ballerina Enrica Soma, and her father was John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich. When Huston was four, her mother died in a car accident in early 1969 and she subsequently moved to Ireland, where she was raised by her mother's estranged husband, film director John Huston. Huston's half-siblings are actress and director Anjelica Huston, writer Tony Huston, writer Artemis Cooper, and Jason Cooper, the 3rd Viscount Norwich.

Career

After earning a degree in English from Hertford College, Oxford, Huston began a career in book publishing, first at Chatto & Windus and then at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, where she was editorial director from 1990 to 1994. After two years as Acquisition and Development Consultant at Pathe Films, London, she left to write and edit as a freelancer. Articles by Huston have appeared in numerous publications, including The Times, Tatler, The Independent on Sunday, Mail on Sunday, YOU magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Newsweek, Mothering, and People. She was on the editorial staff of the biannual art and culture magazine Garage for seven years.

Huston teaches regular writing workshops, and has taught at the University of Oklahoma and the Arvon Foundation. In 2023 she was invited to hold a guest masterclass for graduate students in the University of Iowa Writing Program (Iowa Writers' Workshop).

Personal

Huston is the mother of a son, Rafael.

Published works

• Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, published in April 2009 by Simon & Schuster (US) and Bloomsbury (UK).
• Say My Name: A Novel (London: HQ, July 2017; New York: MIRA, January 2018), republished in paperback as A STOLEN SUMMER (2019)
• Write What You Don't Know: 10 Steps to Writing with Confidence, Energy, and Flow (with James Navé)
• Twice 5 Miles Guides: How to Edit and Be Edited and How to Read for an Audience (with James Navé)