About
Mary Doria Russell has been called one of the most versatile writers in American literature and one of our greatest contemporary storytellers. Her novels are critically acclaimed commercial successes, studied in literature, theology and history courses in colleges and universities, and often chosen as book club and “community read” selections. Her guest lectures have proved popular from New Zealand to Germany as well as in the U.S. and Canada. For sample videos, click Speaking, above. For a complete list of prior speaking events, click Curriculum Vitae, right.
Russell’s first novel, The Sparrow (1996), was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by Entertainment Weekly and won the Arthur C. Clarke Prize, the British Science Fiction for Best Novel in 1998. The sequel, Children of God (1998), won the Friends of the Library USA Reader’s Choice Award. and was nominated for the Hugo Award, Best Novel in 1999. Her first historical fiction, A Thread of Grace (2005), nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, was described by a reviewer in the San Francisco Chronicle to be “As sad as the history that engendered it, and hauntingly beautiful.” Russell’s fourth novel, Dreamers of the Day (2008), was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her most recent fiction, Doc (2011), examines the Old West of Doc Holliday and Dodge City; it was named a Great Lakes Great Book, and a Notable Book by the Kansas State Library. For excerpts and reviews, click Books, above. For a complete list of awards and nominations click Reviews, Awards, Honors, right.
She lives in Cleveland with her husband and is working on her next novel, The Cure For Anger, the story of the 1881 gunfight in Tombstone, Arizona, and its aftermath. For more, click Biography or Interviews and Profiles, right. For information about her academic work, click Curriculum Vitae.
