American director and writer, she was born in Shakers Height, OH. In 1984, at 23, she won the Sundance Festival Grand Jury Prize with her first feature film, Old Enough. During the following years she directed Permanent Record (1988), starring Keanu Reeves, Vital Signs (1990), and He Said, She Said (1991), starring Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins. In 2001, her first short story collection, Babe in Paradise, was nominated Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times and Best Book of the Year by The Los Angeles Times. Her second collection, Alone With You, came out in 2010. Silver also wrote four novels: No Direction Home (2005), The God of War (2008), shortlisted for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the best-seller Mary Coin (2009), winner of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award, and Little Nothing (2017), winner of the Ohioana Book Award for Fiction.