Books
6 Women Who Might Convince You Wall Street Could Make You a Better Writer
If you look at writer Aifric Campbell's bio, you won't see a creative writing major with a stint waiting tables; Campbell spent 13 years as an investment banker before quitting the financial sector to write a novel. Recently she wrote an essay detailing how being an investment banker actually can make someone a better writer. She might be onto something, too. Here’s a closer look at Campbell and five other women who started their careers in finance only to become writers.
Writing and Finance: Do They Mix?
If you look at writer Aifric Campbell's bio, you won't see a creative writing major with a stint waiting tables; Campbell spent 13 years as an investment banker before quitting the financial sector to write a novel. Recently she wrote an essay detailing how being an investment banker actually can make someone a better writer. She might be onto something, too. Here’s a closer look at Campbell and five other women who started their careers in finance only to become writers.
Aifric Campbell
Irish author and former investment banker Aifric Campbell’s debut novel On the Floor takes place during the build up to the Gulf War, and follows worn out investment banker Geraldine “Geri” Molloy, who tries to get her life together after a break-up left her reeling. Unfortunately, her high profile client, the one who made her career, is insisting that she transfer to Hong Kong, a great career move that Geri wants to avoid at all costs. It’s a novel about trying to be human in a world that revolves around dollar signs and trying to catch your breath when money never sleeps.
Linda Davies
British author Linda Davies worked as investment banker in New York City, London, and Eastern Europe before leaving the world of finance to write her first novel, Nest of Vipers, a financial thriller published in 1995. Since then she has penned nine more books, with number ten currently in the works.
Laura Hemphill
Yale grad Laura Hemphill spent seven years working for a variety of high-powered financial institutions before giving it all up to write. Her first novel, Buying In, comes out in November. Set in the year leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, it’s the story of a young woman new to Wall Street who finds the male-dominated world of the money elite to be tougher than expected, and the glass ceiling to be very real. Hemphill is currently working on novel number two.
Colleen Cross
Coleen Cross started off as an art student, but after a brief stint as a graphic designer, she switched careers and got MBA. Now she’s back in the creative world with her Katerina Carter Fraud Thriller series. The first two books are already out and a third is coming soon.
Holly Rozner
Holly Rozner worked her way from English major to CPA to trading S&P options on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange before returning to her roots by producing a novel, Trade Secrets. Set during the 1987 crash, it follows the interconnected lives of two women caught up in the midst of financial scandal, romantic complications, and a murder investigation.
Nina Godiwalla
The world has no shortage of memoirs and so-called tell-alls from self-important, high-powered Wall Street traders, but Nina Godiwalla’s Suits: A Woman on Wall Street manages to strike a different chord. After her time at Morgan Stanley, Godiwalla picked up her pen and told the world what it’s like to be a woman in the Wall Street old boys club. Spoiler alert: Sexism exists.
