Melanie Rae Thon (born 1957, last name pronounced "tone") is an American fiction writer known for work that moves beyond and between genres, erasing the boundaries between them as it explores diversity, permeability, and interdependence from a multitude of human and more-than-human perspectives.
Biography
Thon was born in
Kalispell, Montana
Kalispell (, Salish-Spokane-Kalispel language, Montana Salish: Ql̓ispé, Kutenai language: Kqayaqawakⱡuʔnam) is a city in Montana and the county seat of Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2020 census put Kalispell's population at ...
. She received a B.A. in English from the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
in 1980 and an M.A. in creative writing from
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
in 1982. She has taught at
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It also maintains campuses in Los Angeles and Well, Limburg, Netherlands (Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of Public Speaking, o ...
, the
University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public US-based research university. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Ma ...
,
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
,
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
, and the
University of Utah
The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...
, where she is Professor Emeritus.
Writing
Thon's most recent books, chapbooks, and fine art editions are ''As If Fire Could Hide Us'' (2023); ''Silence & Song'' (2015); ''The 7th Man'' (2015); ''The Bodies of Birds'' (2019); ''Lover'' (2019); and ''The Good Samaritan Speaks'' (2015). She is also the composer of the novel''s The Voice of the River'' (2011); ''Sweet Hearts'' (2001); ''Meteors in August'' (1990); and ''Iona Moon'' (1993); and the story collections ''In This Light'' (2011); ''Girls in the Grass'' (1991); and ''First, Body'' (1997). Her work has been included in ''Best American Short Stories'' (1995, 1996); three Pushcart Prize Anthologies (2003, 2006, 2008); and ''O. Henry Prize Stories'' (2006). In 1996, ''Granta'' included Thon on its list of the Twenty Best Young American Novelists. Thon's fiction has been translated into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Croatian, Finnish, Japanese, Arabic, and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
.
Awards
Thon is a recipient of a Fellowship in Creative Arts from The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2016), a Whiting Writer's Award (1997), the Hopwood Award (1980), two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992, 2008), the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Reading the West Book Award (2012), the Gina Berriault Award (2012), and a Lannan Foundation Writer's Residency in Marfa, Texas (2005). In 2009, she was Virgil C. Aldrich Fellow at the Tanner Humanities Center.
Works
Books
* ''
Meteors in August''. Random House. 1990. ISBN 978-0-394-57664-0
*
*
*
**"Little White Sister," Originally Published in ''
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 ...
'', Winter 1993-1994
**"Xmas, Jamaica Plain," Originally Published in ''Granta 54: Best of Young American Novelists'', Summer 1996
*
* ''I
n This Light: New and Selected Stories''. Graywolf Press. 2011.
*
*
*
*
*
*
* ''As If Fire Could Hide Us''. Fiction Collective 2. 2023. ISBN 978-1573662000 ISBN 978-1573662000
Fictions, Nonfictions, & Poetry
*
Orelia, from ever” ''Literary Hub'', Apr 2023
*
As Birds Vanish: A Love Song” ''Conjunctions'', Feb 2023
*“All Her Beautiful Children,”
Image': No. 115: 7 – 8. 2023
*“Breaking Light”; "MRI: the brain”; “If Birds Were Water”; “Dearest”; “I am awash,”
Five Points': Vol. 21, No. 2: 58 – 63. 2022
*
Lover” ''Agni''. (Reprinted on Literary Hub website May 2018)
*
The Gospel of Grief & Grace & Gratitude” ''AGNI'', July 2018 (Reprinted b
Fiction Collective Two
*
Galaxies Beyond Violet ''Five Points'', Vol 40, Spring 2013
*“Music & Meaning,” ''Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Fiction'', edited by Trevor Dodge and Lance Olsen, Guide Dog Books, 2012 (Reprinted b
*
The Heart Breaks and Breaks Open” ''Glimmer Train'', Bulletin 56, 2011
Love Song for the Mother of No Children” ''Virginia Quarterly Review'', Spring 2008
*
Translation” ''SmokeLong Quarterly'', Sept 2006
*"Tu B'Shvat: for the Drowned and the Saved,"
The Antioch Review', Spring 2006
*"Confession for Raymond Good Bird,"
AGNI', Jan 2006
*"Love Song for Tulanie Rey,"
StoryQuarterly', Jan 2006
Letters in the Snow" ''One Story'', Issue 40, June 2004 (Reprinted in ''O. Henry Prize Stories'' 2006)
*"Dangerous Discoveries," ''The Pushcart Prize Anthology XXVII'', Jan 2003 (Reprinted b
Fiction Collective Two"The Liberating Visions (and futile flight) of Melanie Little Crow" ''Image'', Nov 2002
*"The River Woman's Son,"
Ploughshares', Spring 1997
Necessary Angels" ''The'' ''Paris Review'', Fall 1994
*"Little White Sister,"
Ploughshares', Winter 1993
*"Punishment,"
The Southern Review', Winter 1990 (Reprinted in
The Hopwood Awards: 75 Years of Prized Writing', edited by Nicholas Delbanco, Andrea Beauchamp, and Michael Barrett, University of Michigan Press, 2006)
*"Catch You Later,"
Ploughshares', Fall 1987
External links
FC2: Melanie Rae ThonInterview with David Naimon, ''Between the Covers'' Podcast(2023)
Interview with Aaron J. Cance(2012)
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial FoundationQ & A with Melanie Rae Thon by Hannah Tinti—One StoryInterview with Caryl Phillips
(1993)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thon, Melanie Rae
1957 births
Living people
Emerson College faculty
Syracuse University faculty
University of Utah faculty
Writers from Utah
Ohio State University faculty
University of Massachusetts Boston faculty