Early in her career Walls interned at a
Brooklyn newspaper called
The Phoenix and eventually became a full-time reporter there. From 1987 to 1993 she wrote the "Intelligencer" column for
New York magazine. She then wrote a gossip column for
Esquire, from 1993 to 1998, Walls has contributed to
USA Today, In 2005, Walls published the best-selling memoir
The Glass Castle, which details the joys and struggles of her childhood. It offers a look into her life and that of her dysfunctional family.
The Glass Castle was well received by critics and the public. It has sold over 4 million copies and has been translated into 31 languages. It received the
Christopher Award, the
American Library Association's
Alex Award (2006), and the Books for Better Living Award.
Paramount bought the film rights to the book, and in March 2013 announced that actress
Jennifer Lawrence would play Walls in a film adaptation. On October 9, 2015, it was reported that Lawrence had withdrawn from the film and would be replaced by actress
Brie Larson. The
film adaptation of the same name was released in 2017. In 2009, Walls published her first novel,
Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel, based on the life of her grandmother Lily Casey Smith. It was named one of the ten best books of 2009 by the editors of
The New York Times Book Review. Walls' second novel
The Silver Star was published in 2013 by
Scribner. Her third novel,
Hang the Moon, was published in March 2023 by Scribner.
The Washington Post noted, "The main pleasure of 'Hang the Moon' is the hairpin twists and turns of its plot, so let's say no more about that. Walls has spun another rich story that spotlights, as she said in a 2023 interview, 'people with dreams and vulnerabilities, tough folk in rough situations.' Also, it's a lot of fun to read." ==Personal life==