Maile Meloy (born January 1, 1972) is an American novelist and short story writer.

Early life and education

Born and raised in

Helena, Montana Helena (; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat, seat of Lewis and Clark County, Montana, Lewis and Clark County. Helena was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold ...

, Meloy received a bachelor's degree from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 1994 and an MFA from the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

Career

Meloy won ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

Aga Khan Prize for Fiction The Aga Khan Prize for Fiction was awarded by the editors of '' The Paris Review'' for what they deem to be the best short story published in the magazine in a given year. The last prize was given in 2004. No applications were accepted. The winner ...

for her story "Aqua Boulevard" in 2001; the PEN/Malamud Award for her first collection of short stories, ''Half in Love'', in 2003; and a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 2004. In 2007,

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...

included her on its list of the 21 "Best Young American Novelists." Her work has appeared in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', and she is a frequent contributor to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. Describing how she wrote ''Half in Love'', Meloy is quoted on the

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Bost ...

web site as saying, "What I wound up with was a book that was set in different decades, partly in Montana—and those stories were some of the hardest to write, because it's the place I’m closest to—and partly in other places, in London and Paris and Greece. So it had very little temporal or geographical unity, but the characters are all caught between one thing and another, half in love with something or someone, when life deals them something they didn’t expect." In 2015, two stories from Meloy's collection ''Half in Love'' ("Tome" and "Native Sandstone") and one story from ''Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It'' ("Travis, B.") were adapted into the movie '' Certain Women'' directed by

Kelly Reichardt Kelly Reichardt (; born March 3, 1964) is an American film director and screenwriter. She is known for her minimalism, minimalist films closely associated with slow cinema, many of which deal with working class, working-class characters in small ...

. It premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

in January 2016 and was released by

IFC Films Independent Film Company (formerly IFC Films) is an American film production and distribution company based in New York City, New York. It is an offshoot of IFC (U.S. TV channel), IFC, owned by AMC Networks. It mainly distributes independent fil ...

in October 2016. A story from the book was also featured on ''

This American Life ''This American Life'' is a weekly hour-long American radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internationally, and is ...

s 2016 Christmas episode, read aloud by Meloy. Meloy served on the writing staff of the Netflix series '' The Society'', which premiered in 2019.

Personal life

Meloy is the older sister of

Colin Meloy Colin Patrick Henry Meloy (born October 5, 1974) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and author best known as the frontman of the Portland, Oregon, indie folk rock band the Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acousti ...

, frontman of

The Decemberists The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 2000. The band consists of Colin Meloy (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (piano, keyboards, accordion, backing vocals ...

, solo artist, and author of The Wildwood Chronicles novels. Their aunt, the late Ellen Meloy, was also an author. She lives in Los Angeles.

Works

* ''Half in Love: Stories'' (2002) * '' Liars and Saints'' (2003) * ''A Family Daughter'' (2006) * ''Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It: Stories'' (2009) * ''The Apothecary Series'' ** ''The Apothecary'' (2011) ** ''The Apprentices'' (2013) ** ''The After-Room'' (2015) * '' Do not become alarmed ''(2017)

Short fiction

* * *

References

External links

Archival collections

Guide to the Maile Meloy Collection MS.L.019.
Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.

Other

* *
Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meloy, Maile 1972 births Living people 21st-century American novelists American women short story writers American women novelists Harvard College alumni People from Helena, Montana Novelists from Los Angeles University of California, Irvine alumni Novelists from Montana 21st-century American women writers PEN/Malamud Award winners 21st-century American short story writers