Melanie Rae Thon

Thon was born in Kalispell, Montana. She received a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan in 1980 and an M.A. in creative writing from Boston University in 1982. She has taught at Emerson College, the University of Massachusetts Boston, Syracuse University, Ohio State University, and the University of Utah, where she is Professor Emeritus.{{Cite web|title=Melanie Rae Thon|url=https://granta.com/contributor/melanie-rae-thon/|access-date=2021-09-21|website=Granta|language=en-US}}

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 novels 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);{{Cite book|last=Thon|first=Melanie Rae|title=Best American Short Stories|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|year=1995|isbn=978-0395711798|editor-last=Smiley|editor-first=Jane|location=Boston|pages=243–262|chapter=First, Body}}{{Cite book|last=Thon|first=Melanie Rae|title=Best American Short Stories|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|year=1996|isbn=978-0395752906|editor-last=Wideman|editor-first=John Edgar Wideman|location=Boston|pages=321–328|chapter=Xmas, Jamaica Plain}} three Pushcart Prize Anthologies (2003, 2006, 2008); and O. Henry Prize Stories (2006).{{Cite web|title=Melanie Rae Thon|url=https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/melanie-rae-thon#/|access-date=2021-09-21|website=www.whiting.org}} In 1996, Granta included Thon on its list of the Twenty Best Young American Novelists.{{Cite journal|year=1996|title=The Best of the Young Novelists|journal=Granta|volume=54|pages=297–305}} Thon's fiction has been translated into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Croatian, Finnish, Japanese, Arabic, and Persian.

Thon is a recipient of a Fellowship in Creative Arts from The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2016),{{Cite web|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation {{!}} Melanie Rae Thon|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/melanie-rae-thon/|access-date=2021-09-21|language=en-US}} a Whiting Writer's Award (1997),{{Cite web|title=Melanie Rae Thon|url=https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/melanie-rae-thon#/|access-date=2021-09-21|website=www.whiting.org}} the Hopwood Award (1980), two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992, 2008),{{Cite web|title=Melanie Rae Thon|url=https://www.arts.gov/impact/literary-arts/creative-writing-fellows/melanie-rae-thon|access-date=2021-09-21|website=www.arts.gov|language=en}} the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Reading the West Book Award (2012),{{Cite web|title=Mountains & Plains AKA Reading the West {{!}} Between the Covers Bookstore|url=https://www.between-the-covers.com/mountains-plains|access-date=2021-09-21|website=www.between-the-covers.com}} the Gina Berriault Award (2012),{{Cite web|title=Gina Berriault Award|url=https://www.14hills.net/gina-berriault-award|access-date=2021-09-21|website=newhills|language=en}} and a Lannan Foundation Writer's Residency in Marfa, Texas (2005).{{Cite web|title=Lannan Foundation|url=https://lannan.org/residency/experiences/melanie-rae-thon|access-date=2021-09-21|website=Lannan Foundation|language=en}} In 2009, she was Virgil C. Aldrich Fellow at the Tanner Humanities Center.{{Cite web|title=Melanie Rae Thon|url=https://imagejournal.org/artist/melanie-rae-thon/|access-date=2021-09-20|website=Image Journal|language=en-US}}

• Meteors in August. Random House. 1990. ISBN 978-0-394-57664-0
• {{cite book |title=Girls in the Grass |publisher=Random House |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57663-3}}
• {{cite book| title=Iona Moon| publisher=Simon & Schuster| year=1993| isbn=978-0-671-79687-7| url=https://archive.org/details/ionamoon00thon}}
• {{cite book| title=First, Body| publisher=Houghton Mifflin| year=1997| isbn=978-0-395-78588-1| url=https://archive.org/details/firstbodystories00thon}}
• "Little White Sister," Originally Published in Ploughshares, Winter 1993-1994
• "Xmas, Jamaica Plain," Originally Published in Granta 54: Best of Young American Novelists, Summer 1996
• {{cite book| title=Sweet Hearts| publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt| year=2001| isbn=978-0-395-78589-8| url=https://archive.org/details/sweethearts00thon}}
• In This Light: New and Selected Stories. Graywolf Press. 2011.
• {{cite book| title=The Voice of the River| publisher=Fiction Collective 2| year= 2011| isbn=978-1-573-66162-1 }}
• {{cite book| title=Silence & Song| publisher=Fiction Collective 2| year= 2015| isbn=978-1-573-66053-2 }}
• {{cite book| title=The 7th Man.| publisher=New Michigan Press| year= 2015| isbn=978-1-934832-52-3 }}
• {{cite book| title=The Good Samaritan Speaks (Prompt 4)| publisher=Prompt Press| year= 2015 }}
• {{cite book|title=Lover (Gallery Series 2)|publisher=Prompt Press (limited fine art edition)|year=2018}}
• {{cite book| title=The Bodies of Birds| publisher= New Michigan Press| year= 2019| isbn=978-1-934832-68-4 }}
• As If Fire Could Hide Us. Fiction Collective 2. 2023. ISBN 978-1573662000 ISBN 978-1573662000

• “[https://lithub.com/orelia-from-ever-poetry-by-melanie-rae-thon/ Orelia, from ever],” Literary Hub, Apr 2023
• “[https://www.conjunctions.com/online/article/melanie-rae-thon-02-08-2023 As Birds Vanish: A Love Song],” Conjunctions, Feb 2023
• “All Her Beautiful Children,” [https://imagejournal.org/ Image]: No. 115: 7 – 8. 2023
• “Breaking Light”; "MRI: the brain”; “If Birds Were Water”; “Dearest”; “I am awash,” [https://fivepoints.gsu.edu/issue/five-points-vol-21-no-2/ Five Points]: Vol. 21, No. 2: 58 – 63. 2022
• “[https://lithub.com/lover/ Lover],” Agni. (Reprinted on Literary Hub website May 2018)
• “[https://agnionline.bu.edu/blog/the-gospel-of-grief-grace-gratitude The Gospel of Grief & Grace & Gratitude],” AGNI, July 2018 (Reprinted by [https://www.fc2.org/gospel-of-grief-grace-gratitude/ Fiction Collective Two])
• “[https://fivepoints.gsu.edu/excerpt/galaxies-beyond-violet-15-1-2/ 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 by [http://www.fc2.org/authors/thon/thon.html Fiction Collective Two])
• “[https://www.glimmertrain.com/bulletins/essays/b56thon.php The Heart Breaks and Breaks Open],” Glimmer Train, Bulletin 56, 2011
• "[https://www.vqronline.org/fiction/love-song-mother-no-children Love Song for the Mother of No Children],” Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 2008
• “[https://www.smokelong.com/translation/ Translation],” SmokeLong Quarterly, Sept 2006
• "Tu B'Shvat: for the Drowned and the Saved," [https://www.jstor.org/stable/i412743 The Antioch Review], Spring 2006
• "Confession for Raymond Good Bird," [https://agnionline.bu.edu/about/the-journal/archive/agni-63 AGNI], Jan 2006
• "Love Song for Tulanie Rey,"  [https://storyquarterly.camden.rutgers.edu/ StoryQuarterly],  Jan 2006
• "[https://www.one-story.com/index.php?page=stories&pubcode=os&story_id=40 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 by [https://www.fc2.org/dangerous-discoveries-the-terror-and-the-rapture-of-research/ Fiction Collective Two])
• [http://imagejournal.org/page/artist-of-the-month/melanie-rae-thon "The Liberating Visions (and futile flight) of Melanie Little Crow]," Image, Nov 2002
• "The River Woman's Son," [https://www.pshares.org/issues/spring-1997 Ploughshares], Spring 1997
• "[https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/1764/necessary-angels-melanie-rae-thon Necessary Angels]," The Paris Review,  Fall 1994
• "Little White Sister," [https://www.pshares.org/issues/winter-1993-94 Ploughshares], Winter 1993
• "Punishment," [https://thesouthernreview.org/issues/detail/Winter-1990/73/ The Southern Review], Winter 1990 (Reprinted in [https://www.press.umich.edu/175222/hopwood_awards 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," [https://www.pshares.org/issues/fall-1987 Ploughshares], Fall 1987

• [https://www.fc2.org/authors/thon/ FC2: Melanie Rae Thon]
• [https://tinhouse.com/podcast/melanie-rae-thon-as-if-fire-could-hide-us/ Interview with David Naimon, Between the Covers Podcast] (2023)
• [http://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/the-idea-that-has-entered-the-flesh-melanie-rae-thon-and-the-voice-of-the-river/ Interview with Aaron J. Cance] (2012)
• [https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/melanie-rae-thon/ The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation]
• [http://artistsofutah.org/15bytes/16apr/page6.html All Life is Love: A Profile of Melanie Rae Thon]
• [https://one-story.com/product/letters-in-the-snow/ Q & A with Melanie Rae Thon by Hannah Tinti—One Story]
• [https://bombmagazine.org/articles/melanie-rae-thon/ Interview with Caryl Phillips] (1993)

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Category:1957 births

Category:Living people

Category:Emerson College faculty

Category:Syracuse University faculty

Category:University of Utah faculty

Category:Writers from Utah

Category:Ohio State University faculty

Category:University of Massachusetts Boston faculty