Monica Byrne

Monica Byrne was born on July 13, 1981, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The youngest of five children, she grew up in the college town of Annville, where her father was a lecturer at Lebanon Valley College. Her mother was diagnosed with brain cancer when Monica was seven, and died when Monica was 20.

She attended the Our Lady of the Valley Catholic School for girls in neighboring Lebanon. She earned a B.A. in biochemistry and religion at Wellesley College and an M.S. in geochemistry at MIT.{{Cite web|url = http://www.monicabyrne.org/Resume%20Creative%20Writing%20Apr2013%20P.pdf|title = Resume Creative Writing|date = April 20, 2013|access-date = Oct 30, 2015|website = |publisher = |last = Byrne|first = Monica|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151222043406/http://www.monicabyrne.org/Resume%20Creative%20Writing%20Apr2013%20P.pdf|archive-date = December 22, 2015|url-status = dead}}{{Cite web|title = Monica Byrne, author of award-winning The Girl in the Road|url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/17/monica-byrne-author-the-girl-in-the-road|website = The Guardian|access-date = 2015-10-30|first = Lydia|last = Kiesling|date = 17 April 2015}} Wanting to become an astronaut and go to Mars, she became an intern at NASA.{{Cite web|title = This Former NASA Intern Just Wrote The Best Sci-Fi Book of the Year: Monica Byrne on "The Girl in the Road"|url = http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/this-former-nasa-intern-just-wrote-the-years-best-scifi-novel-monica-byrne-on-the-girl-in-the-road|website = YES! Magazine|access-date = 2015-10-31|first = Christopher Zumski|last = Finke}}{{Cite web|title = How NASA Trained Me To Write A Book|url = http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monica-byrne/how-nasa-trained-me-to-wr_b_5507797.html|website = The Huffington Post|date = 18 June 2014|access-date = 2016-01-10}} However, instead of pursuing a scientific career, she decided to become a writer.{{Cite web|title = Scientist finds second act as a playwright and novelist|url = http://medcitynews.com/2011/03/scientist-finds-second-act-as-a-playwright-and-novelist/?edition=north-carolina&rf=1|website = MedCity News|date = 16 March 2011|access-date = 2016-01-01|language = en-US}}

In 2008, she attended the Clarion Workshop with Neil Gaiman. She began writing fiction and plays. In 2011, she was artist-in-residence at Vermont Studio Center and Elsewhere Collective.{{Cite web|title = Portrait of an artist in overdrive: Durham hyphenate Monica Byrne|url = http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/portrait-of-an-artist-in-overdrive-durham-hyphenate-monica-byrne/Content?oid=2482779|website = Indy Week|access-date = 2016-01-01|last = Woods|first = Byron|date = 2011-05-25}} From 2012 to 2017, she was the playwright-in-residence at Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, in Durham, North Carolina.{{Cite web|title = INTERVIEW: Monica Byrne, author of The Girl in the Road|url = http://electricliterature.com/interview-monica-byrne-author-of-the-girl-in-the-road/|website = Electric Literature|date = 17 February 2015|access-date = 2015-10-30|language = en-US}} Her plays have been performed in other theaters as well.{{Cite web|title = New York Theatre Review: FringeNYC Feature: Playwrights Monica Byrne (What Every Girl Should Know) and Lauren Ferebee (Somewhere Safer) Interview {{sic|eachot|her|nolink=y}}|url = http://newyorktheatrereview.blogspot.de/2013/08/fringenyc-feature-playwrights-monica.html|website = newyorktheatrereview.blogspot.de|access-date = 2015-10-31}}

Her drama What Every Girl Should Know, about girls at a Catholic girls school around 1914 who worship birth control and women's rights activist Margaret Sanger, was performed in Durham, Berkeley,{{Cite web|title = 'What Every Girl Should Know review': Teen rebellion|url = http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/What-Every-Girl-Should-Know-review-Teen-4812683.php|website = SFGate|date = 13 September 2013|access-date = 2015-10-31}}{{Cite web|title = Review: Impact Theatre delivers provocative 'What Every Girl Should Know'|url = http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_24116007/review-impact-theatre-delivers-provocative-what-every-girl|website = www.mercurynews.com|date = 17 September 2013|access-date = 2015-10-31}} and New York.{{Cite web|title = Durham's ascendant novelist and playwright Monica Byrne takes New York|url = http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/durhams-ascendant-novelist-and-playwright-monica-byrne-takes-new-york/Content?oid=3716419|website = Indy Week|access-date = 2015-10-31|last = Woods|first = Byron|date = 11 September 2013}} The title of the play is drawn from the name of Sanger's sex education column in the New York Call, published in 1912 and 1913.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/womanofvalormar000ches|url-access=registration|title=Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America|first=Ellen|last=Chesler|page=[https://archive.org/details/womanofvalormar000ches/page/65 65]|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=2007|isbn=978-1416553694}} Robert Hurwitt of the San Francisco Chronicle remarked that "Byrne's often clever, provocative script isn't fully fleshed out" and "the swift pacing doesn't make up for how thinly Byrne has developed her story or characters". Pat Craig of the San Jose Mercury News praised the "often lighthearted banter and genuine humor that makes the piece float and deliver some powerful messages without sounding the least like proselytizing".

Her first novel, The Girl in the Road (2014), is set in a future where India and Africa have become economic superpowers. It interleaves the stories of Meena, a young woman crossing the Arabian Sea westward from Mumbai to Djibouti on a floating power-generating bridge, and Mariama, a little girl riding a truck eastward across the African continent from Mauritania to Djibouti.{{Cite news|title = Book Review: 'The Girl in the Road' by Monica Byrne|url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304198504579571933605731764|newspaper = Wall Street Journal|access-date = 2015-11-15|issn = 0099-9660|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web|title = A Ceaseless Storm of Matter and Energy |first=Nick|last=Hubble|date=9 May 2014|url = https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/ceaseless-storm-matter-energy/|work = Los Angeles Review of Books|access-date = 15 November 2015}} The Wall Street Journal praised it as "a new sensation, a real achievement", whereas Jason Heller of NPR called it a "frustrating patchwork," albeit concluding "...it doesn't make The Girl in the Road's dizzying journey less than worthwhile."{{Cite web|title = 'Girl In The Road' Is A Dizzying Journey|url = https://www.npr.org/2014/05/22/312190801/girl-in-the-road-is-a-dizzying-journey|website = NPR.org|access-date = 2015-11-15|first = Jason|last = Heller|date = 22 May 2014}}

Her second novel, The Actual Star (2021), takes place across three timelines − in the year 1012, in a declining Mayan kingdom; in 2012, following a young woman exploring her Belizean heritage; and in 3012, where a utopian genderless society has been established after climatic ruin destroyed much of the world.{{Cite web|title=The Actual Star|url=https://www.harpervoyagerbooks.com/book/9780063002913/the-actual-star/|access-date=2021-12-06|website=Harper Voyager|language=en-US}} The novel was well received by critics − the New Scientist review called it a "stone-cold masterpiece", praising the pacing, characters, and societies.{{Cite web|first=Michael|last=Marshall|title=The Actual Star review: A masterpiece of imaginative world building|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25133501-400-the-actual-star-review-a-masterpiece-of-imaginative-world-building/|access-date=2021-12-06|website=New Scientist|language=en-US}} The Tor.com review called it "one of the most effective examples of worldbuilding you’re likely to see on a page this year", deeming it an "epic, visceral novel" that "bristles with ambition".{{Cite web|last=Carroll|first=Tobias|date=2021-10-01|title=When History Echoes: Monica Byrne's The Actual Star|url=https://www.tor.com/2021/10/01/when-history-echoes-monica-byrnes-the-actual-star/|access-date=2021-12-06|website=Tor.com|language=en-US}}

Byrne considers Norman Rush, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Ursula K. Le Guin as inspiration for her work.

• The Girl in the Road (2014)
• The Actual Star (2021)

• The Comedy at Kuala. In Electric Velocipede, Issue #21/22, Fall 2010{{Cite web|title = Issue 21/22 – Summer 2011 (cover date Fall 2010)|url = http://www.electricvelocipede.com/issues/issues-21-30/issue-2122/|website = Electric Velocipede|access-date = 2015-11-16|language = en-US|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151222043421/http://www.electricvelocipede.com/issues/issues-21-30/issue-2122/|archive-date = 2015-12-22}}
• Nine Bodies of Water. In Fantasy Magazine, September 2010
• Five Letters from New Laverne. In Shimmer, Number 12 (2010){{Cite web|title = Issue 12 Orders {{!}} Shimmer|url = http://www.shimmerzine.com/issue-12-orders/|website = www.shimmerzine.com|access-date = 2015-11-16}}
• [http://thebaffler.com/stories/gustus-dei Gustus Dei]. In The Baffler, No 27 (2015)
• The Reclamation Rite of One April Nora Hess. In Gargoyle, Issue 56{{Cite web|title = Gargoyle: Issue 56|url = http://www.gargoylemagazine.com/gargoyle/Issues/Issue56.php|website = www.gargoylemagazine.com|access-date = 2015-11-16}}

• Miss America 1988 and The Last Human Conversation
• Poor Ball
• Nightwork (2011)
• The Memory Palace (2011)
• What Every Girl Should Know (2012)
• The Pentaeon (2012)
• Tarantino's Yellow Speedo (2014)

• {{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2015/04/monica-byrne-hugos-vida/ |title=Hey, Book World: Sexism is Way Bigger Than the Hugos|magazine=Wired|date=May 4, 2015}}
• {{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/05/why-literature-still-needs-more-non-white-non-male-heroes/371010/ |title=Literature Still Urgently Needs More Non-White, Non-Male Heroes|magazine=The Atlantic|date=May 20, 2014}}
• {{cite journal|url=http://www.ourstate.com/morehead-planetarium/ |title=To the Moon, from Chapel Hill|journal=Our State|date=January 2013}}
• {{cite journal|url=http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/in-pursuit-of-world-peace-one-coupling-at-a-time/Content?oid=3121136 |title=In Pursuit of World Peace|journal=Independent Weekly|date=August 2012 |last1=Byrne |first1=Monica }}
• {{cite journal|url=http://howlround.com/everything-we-plant-grows |title=Everything We Plant Grows|journal=HowlRound|date=July 2012}}
• {{cite journal|title=Only To Be There|journal=Wellesley Magazine|date=Summer 2011}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Portal|Theatre|Literature|Speculative fiction|Biography}}

• [http://www.monicabyrne.org Monica Byrne's web site]
• [http://monicacatherine.com Monica Byrne's Blog]
• {{ISFDB name|146467}}
• [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monica-byrne/how-nasa-trained-me-to-wr_b_5507797.html "How NASA Trained Me to Write a Book"] The Huffington Post, June 18, 2014
• [http://thestake.org/2014/07/09/the-stake-reading-club-interview-with-monica-byrne/ "The Stake Reading Club: Interview with Monica Byrne"] June 9, 2014
• {{TED speaker | monica_byrne}}

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Category:1981 births

Category:Living people

Category:American science fiction writers

Category:American women novelists

Category:American women science fiction and fantasy writers

Category:21st-century American dramatists and playwrights

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:Writers from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Category:People from Lebanon County, Pennsylvania

Category:Wellesley College alumni

Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni

Category:Novelists from Pennsylvania