Melissa Scholes Young | |
---|---|
Born | Hannibal, Missouri, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Southern Illinois University (MFA) Stetson University (MA) Monmouth College (BA) |
Occupation(s) | Author, professor |
Employer | American University |
Known for | Creative Writing |
Notable work | Flood, "A Soft Place to Rest," American Fiction vol. 15 |
Awards | Bread Loaf Bakeless Camargo Fellowship, 2015 |
Melissa Scholes Young (born 1975) is an American writer.
Scholes Young was born in Hannibal, Missouri. She graduated from Monmouth College with a BA in history, from Stetson University with an MA in education, and from Southern Illinois University with an MFA in Creative Writing.[citation needed] She is an associate professor in literature at American University.
Scholes Young edited two volumes of new work by women writers, Grace in Darkness (2018)[1] and Furious Gravity (2020),[2] which was featured on the Kojo Nnamdi Show,[3] Washington Independent Review of Books,[4][5] Medium,[6] and at Politics & Prose Bookstore.[7]
She is a contributing editor for Fiction Writers Review[8] and Editor of the Grace & Gravity anthology.[9] Her writing has appeared in American Fiction,[10] The Atlantic,[11] Literary Hub,[12] Ms. Magazine,[13] Narrative, Origins Literary Magazine,[14] Ploughshares, Poet Lore, Poets & Writers,[15] The Washington Independent Review of Books,[16] and The Washington Post.[17]
Scholes Young attended the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in 2014 and was awarded the Bread Loaf Bakeless Camargo Fellowship in 2015.[18]
She also published her debut novel, Flood, in 2017.[19] The novel received reviews from residents and press[20][21][22] in Hannibal, Missouri: Scholes Young's hometown, Mark Twain's hometown, and the setting and inspiration of the novel.[23] The novel also received attention from the literary community in Washington, D.C.[24][25] and brought rise to Scholes Young's creative writing career as an emerging author in the nation's capital.[26]
Scholes Young, sharing a hometown with Mark Twain, has written fiction[27][28][29] that reimagines Tom and Huck's famous friendship as female and scholarship[30] concerned with the character portrayal of Becky Thatcher.[31][32]
Scholes Young's second novel, The Hive,[33] is forthcoming in 2021 from Turner Publishing.[34] The novel has been optioned by Sony Entertainment.[35]
She teaches in the Department of Literature at American University in Washington, D.C. where she champions first-generation student issues.[36][37]