Melissa Fay Greene
Encyclopedia
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, Greene is the author of five books of nonfiction, a two-time National Book Award finalist, recipient of an honorary doctorate from Emory University in 2010, and a 2011 inductee into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.
Life
Born in Macon, GeorgiaMacon, Georgia
Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...
, Melissa Green lives in Atlanta with her husband, Don Samuel, a criminal defense attorney and partner in the law firm Garland, Samuel & Loeb. Married in 1979, they are the parents of nine children: Molly, 29, Seth, 26, Lee, 23, Lily, 18, Fisseha ("Sol"), 17, Daniel, 16, Jesse, 16, Helen, 14, and Yosef, 13. The first four children were born into the family; Jesse was adopted from Bulgaria in 1999; Helen, Fisseha, and brothers Daniel and Yosef were adopted from Ethiopia in 2002, 2004, and 2007. Daniel and Yosef's photographs, from years prior to their adoption, and before the author knew they were to become her sons, appear in There is No Me Without You.
Molly Samuel, who graduated from Oberlin College in 2004 with a B.A. in Ancient Greek, lives in San Francisco where she freelances for NPR-affiliate stations KQED] and KALW as a producer, reporter, and arts critic; she was named a 2009-2010 Middlebury Environmental Journalism Fellow and is producing a radio series on California's Islands. Seth Samuel, who graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory in 2007 with a Bachelors in Music, and in 2009 from NYU with a Masters in Scoring for Film & Multimedia, also lives in San Francisco; he is an audio engineer at KALW; he scores the popular online cooking show, Economy Bites. Lee Samuel is a senior at the Rafael Recanati International School of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzlia, Israel, studying global conflict and development. Lily Samuel, a 2010 recipient of a gold medal in photography from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is a freshman at Oberlin College. The younger five children live at home, playing a lot of soccer and basketball, hosting many sleepover friends, and sometimes expressing disappointment with what their mother has made for dinner, particularly the meatloaf.
Praying for Sheetrock
Published in 1991, Praying for Sheetrock is the true story of the often-criminal heyday of the good old boys in McIntosh County, GeorgiaMcIntosh County, Georgia
McIntosh County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is part of the Brunswick, Georgia, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of McIntosh, Glynn, and Brantley counties. As of 2010, the population is 14,333. The county seat is Darien.-History:McIntosh County was split...
on the rural coast of Georgia and the rise of civil rights there, won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize
Heartland Prize
The Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize is a literary prize created in 1988 by the newspaper The Chicago Tribune. It is awarded yearly in two categories: Fiction and Non-Fiction. These prizes are awarded to books that "reinforce and perpetuate the values of heartland America."- Chicago Tribune...
, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Quality Paperback Book Club New Visions Award, was a finalist for the National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
and the National Book Critics Circle Award
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
and was named one of the 100 best works of American journalism of the 20th century by the journalism faculty of New York University.
The Temple Bombing
The Temple Bombing (1996) investigates an incident of domestic terrorism during the era of "massive resistanceMassive resistance
Massive resistance was a policy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. on February 24, 1956, to unite other white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision...
" to desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
in Atlanta in the 1950s with an attack on a Jewish synagogue called The Temple. The book was a National Book Award finalist and winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, the Georgia Author of the Year Award of the Georgia Writers Association, the Georgia Historical Society Award, the Hadassah
Hadassah
Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America is an American Jewish volunteer women's organization. Founded in 1912 by Henrietta Szold, it is one of the largest international Jewish organizations, with around...
Myrtle Wreath Award, the Salon Book Award, and the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
National Civil Liberties Award.
Last Man Out
Last Man Out (2002) tells the story of the 1958 Springhill mining disasterSpringhill mining disaster
The term Springhill mining disaster can refer to any of three separate Canadian mining disasters which occurred in 1891, 1956, and 1958 in different mines within the Springhill coalfield, near the town of Springhill in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia....
in Springhill, Nova Scotia
Springhill, Nova Scotia
-Coal mining:The first industrial coal mining in the area took place in the 1870s after a rail connection was built by the Springhill and Parrsboro Coal and Railway Company to the newly completed Intercolonial Railway at neighbouring Springhill Junction....
. It was named a best book of the year by the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, the Globe and Mail, the Cox newspaper chain, and the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
.
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 a middle-aged Ethiopian foster mother and the dozens of children crossing her threshold. It was winner of Elle Magazine’s Elle’s Lettres Readers Prize, a finalist for the J. Anthony LukasJ. Anthony Lukas
Jay Anthony Lukas, aka J. Anthony Lucas , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author, probably best known for his 1985 book Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, a classic study of race relations and school busing in Boston, Massachusetts, as...
Book Prize, an American Library Association Notable Book and for Booksense, and named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, Christian Science Monitor, Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, and The Atlanta Constitution. There Is No Me Without You has been translated into 15 languages.
No Biking in the House without a Helmet
This light-hearted family memoir about life with nine children from three continents, was published in May 2011 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Reviewers for NPR, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post were unanimous in their enthusiasm.Greene has written for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, Life Magazine, Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...
, The Atlantic, Readers Digest, The Wilson Quarterly, Redbook
Redbook
Redbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
, and Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
. She was a 2010 recipient of an honorary doctorate from Emory University.