She published her first story at 44. At 91, she wrote another book.

Hilma Wolitzer published a poem at age 9, in a journal run by the New York City Department of Sanitation. Then she stopped writing for 35 years.

At 44, she published her first story in the Saturday Evening Post. Over the next five decades, she wrote nine novels, four children's books, and earned a Guggenheim Fellowship. Critics called her work "diamond sharp and funny." She taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, at Columbia, at Bread Loaf. She was, by any measure, one of the most accomplished American writers most people had never heard of.

Then, at 91, after losing her husband to COVID-19, she wrote about it. The result was a story collection called "Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket" — and it included a new piece about grief that reviewers said was as sharp as anything she'd ever written. NPR called it "a reminder that life still has stories to tell, no matter when you start listening."

She calls herself "The Great Middle-Aged Hope." Her advice on writing at 91: "Writing makes me forget myself and how old I am. At least until I pass a mirror."

Hilma Wolitzer passed away in June 2024, at 94. She was writing until the end.