Rebecca Donner is a Canadian-born writer. She is the author of ''All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days,'' which won the 2022

National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography The National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, established in 1983, is an annual American literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501 ...

, the

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award The PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award is awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to honor a "distinguished biography possessing notable literary merit which has been published in the United States during the previous calendar year." ...

, and The Chautauqua Prize She was a 2023 Visiting Scholar at Oxford, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of her contribution to historical scholarship. She is currently a 2023-2024 Fellow at Harvard.

Biography

Donner was born in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and during childhood lived in Japan, Michigan, Virginia, and California. She received her BA from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and MFA from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. She taught writing at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

. She wrote “Sunset Terrace,” a novel set in Los Angeles, followed by “Burnout,” a graphic novel about ecoterrorism. In 2021, Donner published a biography, ''All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days,'' of her great-great-aunt,

Mildred Harnack Mildred Elizabeth Harnack (; September 16, 1902 – February 16, 1943) was an American literary historian, translator, and member of the German resistance against the Nazi regime. After marrying Arvid Harnack, she moved to Germany in 1929, whe ...

, an American who was part of the Nazi resistance in Germany and was executed in 1943 on Hitler's orders. * * The book won the

, the

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography The PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award is awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to honor a "distinguished biography possessing notable literary merit which has been published in the United States during the previous calendar year." ...

, and The Chautauqua Prize ''All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days'' was also a finalist for the

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize currently has nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), his ...

and the Plutarch Award, and a shortlisted nominee for the

Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction The Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a non-fiction book written in English. Since 1987 it is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Litera ...

at the

2022 Governor General's Awards The shortlisted nominees for the 2022 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were announced on October 12, 2022,Adina Bresge"Sheila Heti, Anne Carson among finalists for the Governor General's Literary Awards" ''Toronto Star'', October 12, 20 ...

. Pulitzer-Prize-winning biographer Kai Bird praised the book as "a stunning literary achievement." Donner is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of her contribution to historical scholarship. She received a 2022

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 the general nonfiction category. In 2023, Donner was a Visiting Scholar at Oxford. She is currently a 2023-2024 Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Awards and honors

* 2023-2024 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, Harvard * 2023 Visiting Scholar, Oxford * 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship * 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography * 2022 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography * 2022 Chautauqua Prize * 2022 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, finalist * 2022 Governor General's Literary Award, finalist * 2022 Plutarch Award, finalist

Works

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donner, Rebecca Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Canadian women non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian biographers Canadian women biographers 21st-century Canadian women writers Year of birth missing (living people) National Book Critics Circle Award winners