{{short description|American novelist}} {{Infobox writer | name = Melanie Sumner | education = Darlington School<br>University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA)<br>Boston University (MFA) | birth_place = Middletown, Ohio, U.S. | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1963|12|30}} | occupation = writer, college professor | awards = Whiting Award | website = {{URL|https://melaniesumner.com/}} }}
'''Melanie Sumner''' (born December 30, 1963) is an American writer and college professor.<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org">{{cite web |author= |date= |title=Georgia Authors: Melanie Sumner |url=http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Georgia-Literary-Map/Georgia-Author-Detail.php?record_id=149 |website=Georgia Center for the Book |access-date=13 December 2018 |archive-date=15 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215223408/http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Georgia-Literary-Map/Georgia-Author-Detail.php?record_id=149 |url-status=dead }}</ref> She was acclaimed as one of "America's Best Young Novelists" in 1995.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 2009 Georgia Literary Festival {{!}} Georgia Center for the Book {{!}} Supporting Libraries, Literary Programs and Georgia's Rich Literary Heritage |url=http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Georgia-Literary-Festival/Archive/2009/index.php#:~:text=Melanie%20Sumner,%20who%20grew%20up,published%20in%202001%20to%20acclaim. |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=www.georgiacenterforthebook.org}}</ref> Writer Jill McCorkle says, "She comes to her characters with this wealth of knowledge. She's so well-versed in those wonderful little details that make up Southern towns. She has such a rich expanse of her fictional turf wildly varied and yet always occupied with this kind of social manners and morals and taboos."<ref name=":3">"Profile: Writer Melanie Sumner." ''Morning Edition'', 30 Aug. 2001. ''Gale Academic OneFile'', Accessed 19 May 2022.</ref>
Sumner is an associate professor of English at Kennesaw State University.<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" />
==Early life== Sumner was born in Middletown, Ohio. When she was seven years old, her family moved to Rome, Georgia where she grew up.<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" />
She graduated from Darlington School in 1982.<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" /> She received a BA in religious studies at the University of North Carolina in 1986.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> There, she was a member of the literary fraternity St. Anthony Hall. She received an MFA in creative writing at Boston University in 1987.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Melanie Sumner |url=https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/melanie-sumner#/ |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=www.whiting.org}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Melanie Sumner |url=https://www.arts.gov/impact/literary-arts/creative-writing-fellows/melanie-sumner |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=National Endowment for the Arts |language=en}}</ref>
== Career == From 1988 to 1990, Sumner taught English in Senegal with the Peace Corps.<ref name=":0" /> She has taught at various colleges, including Cape Fear Community College (1990–1993), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1995–1996), the University of New Mexico (1998–2001), and Shorter College (2002–2008).<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" /> Currently, she is an associate professor of English at Kennesaw State University.<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" /> While at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995 and 1996, she was a writer in residence.<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" />
She has published many short stories and several novels. Her short stories have appeared in ''Atlanta'', ''Harper's Magazine,'' ''Ladies Home Journal'', ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and ''StoryQuarterly.''<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" /><ref name=":0" /> In 1994, her short story "My Other Life" was selected for inclusion in the anthology ''New Stories from the South: The Year's Best 1994,'' published by Algonquin Books.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1994-01-01 |title=Fiction Book Review: New Stories from the South 1994: The Year's Best by Shannon Ravenel |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781565120884 |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=www.publishersweekly.com}}</ref> Published in 1995 by Houghton Mifflin, her first book was ''Polite Society'', a novel told through a series of short stories is about a young woman from Tennessee who serves as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Polite Society |url=http://melanie-sumner.com/books/polite-society/ |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=Melanie Sumner}}</ref>
In her second novel, ''The School of Beauty and Charm'', Sumner portrays an adolescent girl raised in an affluent, Christian-oriented Southern family who struggles under the pressure from her parents to become a “proper young lady," getting involved in alcohol and drugs.<ref name=":3" /> It was published in 2002 of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, now Simon & Schuster.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-School-of-Beauty-and-Charm/Melanie-Sumner/9780743446440 |title=The School of Beauty and Charm |date=2002-12-01 |isbn=978-0-7434-4644-0 |language=en}}</ref>
Her third novel, ''The Ghost of Milagro Creek'', was published in July 2010 by Algonquin.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=The Ghost of Milagro Creek |url=https://www.workman.com/ |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=Workman Publishing |language=en-US}}</ref> The ghost of a medicine woman called Abuela narrates this story of star–crossed lovers set in a mixed community of Native Americans, Hispanics, and whites of Taos, New Mexico.<ref name=":6" />
Her fourth novel, ''How To Write a Novel'' was published in August 2015 by Vintage, a Random House imprint.<ref name=":7">{{cite web |author= |date= |title=How to Write a Novel by Melanie Sumner - PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/247786/how-to-write-a-novel-by-melanie-sumner/9781101873472 |website=PenguinRandomhouse.com |access-date=13 December 2018}}</ref> Its plot pulls from aspects of Sumner's own life, telling the story of a 12-year-old girl who moves to a small town in Georgia after her father dies with her mother who is an English professor.<ref name=":7" /><ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" /><ref name="npr.org" />
==Awards==
* ''Polite Society'' was included in the Library of Congress Peace Corps Collection in 2011<ref name=":4" /> * She received a National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship for prose in 2010.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> * In 1995, she received the Whiting Award for fiction for ''Polite Society''.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> * She received the Maria Thomas Award for ''Polite Society,'' selected as the best book by a returned Peace Corps volunteer.<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" /> * She was awarded a fellowship/residency to The Fine Arts Work Center<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> * She received a fellowship/Residency to Yaddo.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> * In 2001, the Rome Area Arts Council in Georgia selected Sumner as the Artist of the Year. * ''The Ghost of Milagro Creek'' was selected ''as'' New Mexico's Best Novel<ref>{{Cite journal |date=May 2018 |title=May Speakers |url=https://atlantawritersclub.org/wp-content/uploads/bsk-pdf-manager/2018-05_May_eQuill_170.pdf |journal=Equill: Atlanta Writer's Club |pages=6}}</ref>
==Publications==
=== Books ===
==== Short stories ==== * {{cite book| title=Polite Society| publisher=Houghton Mifflin| year=1995| isbn=978-0-395-68998-1| url=https://archive.org/details/politesociety00sumn}}<ref name=":4" />
==== Novels ==== * {{cite book |title=The School of Beauty and Charm |publisher=Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill/Simon & Schuester |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-56512-286-4}}<ref name=":5" /> * {{cite book| title=The Ghost of Milagro Creek| publisher=Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill| year= 2010| isbn=978-1-56512-917-7 }}<ref name=":6" /> * {{cite book| title=How to Write a Novel (a novel)| publisher=Vintage/Random House| year= 2015| isbn=978-1101873472 }}<ref name=":4" />
===Anthologies===
* "The Monster," ''Voices of the Xiled: A Generation Speaks for Itself. Doubleday,'' 1994. {{ISBN|978-1-4177-1088-1}} * "My Other Life." New Stories from the South: The Year's Best 1994. Algonquin Books, 1994. {{ISBN|978-1-56512-088-4}}<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Selected Works - Melanie Sumner |url=https://works.bepress.com/melanie-sumner/ |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=Kennesaw State University}}</ref> * "My Other Life." ''Best of the South: From Ten Years of New Stories from the South'' (1997) Algonquin Books. {{ISBN|978-1-56512-128-7}} * ''"''The Guide." ''Living on the Edge: Fiction by Peace Corps Writers'' (1999) Curbstone Press. {{ISBN|978-1-880684-57-3}} * "Marriage." ''Long Story Short: Flash Fiction from 64 of North Carolina's Finest Writers'' (2009) University of North Carolina Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8078-5977-3}}<ref name=":2" /> * "Good-Hearted Woman." ''New Stories from the South: The Year's Best 2000'' (2000) Algonquin Books, p. 37. {{ISBN|978-1-56512-295-6}} * "The Guide." ''After O'Connor: Stories from Contemporary Georgia'' (2003) University of Georgia {{ISBN|978-0-8203-2556-9}} * "Marriage." ''Convergences: Message, Method, Medium''. 2nd edition (2004). Bedford / St. Martins. {{ISBN|978-0-312-25074-4}}<ref name=":2" /> * "The Monster." ''The Best of Boulevard Fiction. Volume 1'' (2015) Opojaz, Inc.<ref name=":2" />
=== As editor ===
* ''The Treasure in the Heart: Stories and Yoga for Peaceful Children''. with Sydney Soils. (2007) Mythic Yoga Studio. {{ISBN|978-0-9777063-1-0}}<ref name=":2" />
=== Journals. ===
* "Yesterday." ''StoryQuarterly'' (1987)<ref name=":2" /> * "The Night Watchman." ''The Kennesaw Review'' (1988)<ref name=":2" /> * "Naar," ''Story'' (1991)<ref name=":2" /> * "[https://richardburginblvd.tripod.com/1boulevardsumner.htm Monster]" ''Boulevard'' (1992)<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Boulevard - The Monster by Melanie Sumner |url=https://richardburginblvd.tripod.com/1boulevardsumner.htm |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=richardburginblvd.tripod.com}}</ref> * "My Other Life." ''StoryQuarterly'' (1993)<ref name=":2" /> * "[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/02/01/the-edge-of-the-sky The Edge of the Sky]." ''The New Yorker,'' (February 1, 1993) p. 74.<ref name=":2" /> * "[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/04/26/the-guide-2 The Guide]." ''The New Yorker'' (April 26, 1993) p. 84.<ref name=":2" /> * "The Bad Connection." ''Seventeen'' (1994)<ref name=":2" /> * "Up in Smoke." ''Conde Nast Sports for Women'' (1998)<ref name=":2" /> * "The School of Beauty and Charm." ''Story'' (1998)<ref name=":2" /> * "Good Hearted Woman." ''Doublelake'' (1999)<ref name=":2" /> * "Out of Alaska." ''The New York Times'' (1999)<ref name=":2" /> * "Slipping Away." ''Ladies Home Journal'' (2002)<ref name=":2" /> * "[https://harpers.org/archive/2003/10/marriage/ Marriage]." ''Harper's Magazine'' (2003)<ref name=":2" /> * "The Willing Suspension of Disbelief." ''Atlanta'' (2004)<ref name=":2" /> * "Killing the Cat." ''Tri-Quarterly'' (2004)<ref name=":2" /> * "Old Money, New Money, and No Money," ''Atlanta'' (2006)<ref name=":2" /> * "Wildwood," ''Atlanta'' (2007)<ref name=":2" /> * "Emergence." ''Five Points Magazine'' (2008)<ref name=":2" />
== Personal life == Sumner spent some twenty years as "a Southern expatriate downplaying her accent and poking fun at her roots."<ref name=":3" /> She has lived in Senegal, New Mexico, Alaska, and Provincetown.<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" /> Around 2001, she moved back to Rome, Georgia due to an illness in her family.<ref name="npr.org">{{cite web |author= |date= |title=Morning Edition: Melanie Sumner |url=https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/aug/southern/010830.southern.sumner.html |website=www.npr.org |access-date=13 December 2018}}</ref> Her husband David died from Lou Gehrig's Disease in 2002.<ref name="georgiacenterforthebook.org" /><ref name=":3" /> She has two children, Zoë and Rider.<ref name=":1" />
==References== {{Reflist}}{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumner, Melanie}} Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni Category:Kennesaw State University faculty Category:People from Middletown, Ohio Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Category:Novelists from Ohio Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:21st-century American women novelists Category:Darlington School alumni Category:American women academics