Melissa Fay Greene
Melissa Fay Greene (born December 30, 1952) is an American nonfiction author. A 1975 graduate of Oberlin College, Greene is the author of six books of nonfiction, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a 2011 inductee into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame,[1] and a 2015 recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts.
Greene has written for
Life
Born into a Jewish family in Macon, Georgia, and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Melissa Fay Greene lives in Atlanta with her husband, Don Samuel, a criminal defense attorney, and numerous children. Married in 1979 in Savannah, Melissa and Don are the parents of nine children.
Publications
Praying for Sheetrock
Published in 1991, Praying for Sheetrock is the true story of the often-criminal heyday of the good old boys in
The Temple Bombing
The Temple Bombing (1996) investigates an incident of domestic terrorism during the era of "massive resistance" to desegregation in Atlanta in 1958 when an Atlanta synagogue known as "The Temple"[10] was bombed by a homegrown Neo-Nazi organization. The New Jersey-born Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, a friend and colleague of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and other white and African-American leaders of the civil rights movement, spoke and acted on behalf of civil equality despite the precarious social position of Southern Jews and the fears of his congregants that the violent racists would come after them.
The book was a National Book Award finalist
The infamous 1915 lynching—by a white mob including civic leaders—of the Jewish 31-year-old manager of the Atlanta Pencil Company, Leo Frank, wrongly convicted and posthumously pardoned for the murder of 13-year-old child worker Mary Phagan, occurred within this same community: Frank was a member of The Temple.
The Academy Award-winning Driving Miss Daisy (Best Picture, 1989), written by prize-winning Atlanta native Alfred Alfred Uhry, makes dramatic use of the Temple bombing incident—Miss Daisy is a Temple member—though the chronology is fictionalized.
Last Man Out
Last Man Out (2002) tells the story of
Last Man Out was named a Best Book of the Year by
There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Save Her Country's Children
This 2006 book illuminates the Ethiopian orphan crisis caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa through the portrait of one person on the frontlines: a middle-aged Ethiopian foster mother, Mrs. Haregewoin Teferra, and the scores of children crossing her threshold. It was winner of Elle magazine's Elle's Lettres Readers Prize,
There Is No Me Without You has been translated into 15 languages.
No Biking in the House without a Helmet
[Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011] Greene's first humorous book and first memoir is an overview of family life with nine children from three continents, composed, according to the acknowledgements, with the consent and veto-power of all family members.
No Biking was named a Best Audio Book of 2011 and was an Oprah Mother's Day Pick.
Awards and honors
2015:
2013: Georgia Governor's Award for the Arts & Humanities[17]
2011: Induction into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame[18]
2010: Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Emory University
2006: Winner, Elle magazine's Elle's Lettres Readers Prize[19]
2006: Finalist, J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize
1996: The Southern Book Critics Circle Award[20]
1996: Hadassah Myrtle Wreath Award
1996: Georgia Author of the Year Award
1996: ACLU National Civil Liberties Award
1996: Finalist, The National Book Award in Nonfiction
1992: Winner, Robert F. Kennedy Book Award
1992: Lyndhurst Foundation Fellowship
1992: Winner, The Lillian Smith Book Award[21]
1992: Winner, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award[22]
1991: Winner, Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction[23]
1991: Finalist in Nonfiction, The National Book Critics Circle Award
1991: Finalist, National Book Award in Nonfiction
1991: Winner, The Salon Book Prize
References
- ^ "Georgia Writers Hall of Fame". georgiawritershalloffame.org. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Archived 2007-10-14 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Chicago Tribune Literary Awards 2008". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ "Home". Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ "Bookspan - Press Release". 2007-06-13. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ "National Book Awards 1991". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ National Book Critics Circle Award Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Best American Journalism of the 20th Century". infoplease.com. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ "The New Classics: Books | EW.com". Entertainment Weekly.
- ^ "The Temple". Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2007-10-22.
- ^ "National Book Awards 1996". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ Southern Book Critics Circle Award
- ^ Georgia Historical Society Award Archived 2007-06-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Elle's Lettres Readers Prize [permanent dead link], Elle Magazine
- ^ Best Book of the Year, Publishers Weekly
- ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Melissa Fay Greene". Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ "Melissa Fay Greene (b. 1952)". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
- ^ "Georgia Writers Hall of Fame". georgiawritershalloffame.org. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
- ^ Elle's Lettres Readers Prize [permanent dead link], Elle Magazine
- ^ "Georgia Writers Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on 2018-03-11. Retrieved 2018-03-11.
- ^ "Melissa Fay Greene (B. 1952)".
- ^ "Praying for Sheetrock".
- ^ "Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize Winners Page 2 out of 2".