Interviewee: Anne Rice
Interviewer: Carolyn Sayer
Date: May 15, 2008

Anne Rice wrote some of the best-known fiction on vampires, witches, demons and the supernatural. She is most popular for The Vampire Chronicles, a bestselling body of work spanning three decades.

Ending years of atheism, Anne Rice returned to Catholicism in 1998 and publicly vowed to devote her works to Jesus Christ. A memoir documenting her conversion, Called Out of Darkness, was released in 2008.

Anne Rice’s return to faith encouraged her to novelize the life of Jesus and tell it from his point of view. In 2005, she published the novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and followed it with Christ the Lord: the Road to Canaa, in 2008. In addition, she intends to release Angel Time, the first novel in a series to be called Songs of the Seraphim.

However, Anne Rice has yet to top the commercial success of her earlier works, especially Interview with the Vampire. Published in 1976, the novel catapulted Rice’s vain vampire antihero Lestat and his lover Louis into iconic status. Neil Jordan adapted the book into a hit movie in 1994, with Tom Cruise portraying Lestat and Brad Pitt as Louis.

Interview with the Vampire spawned many sequels, which collectively became known as The Vampire Chronicles. With Anne Rice promising to turn her back on malefic characters, the series culminated in 2003 with Blood Canticle.

All in all, Anne Rice has written more than 30 novels, including erotica under the sobriquets Anne Rampling and A.N. Roquelaure. She also penned a bestselling trio of books called Lives of the Mayfair Witches.

Anne Rice was born Howard Allen O’Brien in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 4, 1941. Self-conscious about her masculine name, Howard has used the name “Anne” since she was in first grade.

In 1958, Anne Rice and her family moved to Richardson, Texas, where she met future husband Stan Rice. They married in 1961 and had daughter Michele, who died of leukemia in 1972. In 1978, she gave birth to son Christopher.

Anne Rice holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and masters in creative writing from San Francisco State University.