Melanie Rae Thon
Melanie Rae Thon (born 1957, last name pronounced "tone") is an American fiction writer known for work that moves beyond and between genres as it explores diversity from a multitude of human and more-than-human perspectives. Biography. 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. Writing. Thon's most recent books, chapbooks, and  fine art editions are "Silence & Song" (2015); "The 7th Man" (2015); "The Bodies of Birds" (2019); "Lover" (2019); and "The Good Samaritan Speaks" (2015). She is also the author 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); three Pushcart Prize Anthologies (2003, 2006, 2008); and "O. Henry Prize Stories" (2006). In 1996, "Granta" included Thon on its list of  the Twenty Best Young American Novelists. Awards. Thon is a recipient of a Fellowship in Creative Arts from The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2016), a Whiting Writer's Award (1997), the Hopwood Award (1980), two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992, 2008), the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Reading the West Book Award (2012), the Gina Berriault Award (2012), and a Lannan Foundation Writer's Residency in Marfa, Texas (2005). In 2009, she was Virgil C. Aldrich Fellow at the Tanner Humanities Center.