Melanie Thon
Professor, English
English
Languages & Communication Bldg
255 S Central Campus Dr Rm 3500
Salt Lake City, Ut 84112
Office: 3615 LNCO
Office Hours: Fall 2009: T,TH 12:15 - 1:15, and by appointment
Office Phone: 581-7651
Email:
Degrees:
1982 M.A. Boston University
1980 B.A. University of Michigan
Melanie Rae Thon's fiction has been translated into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Croatian, Finnish, Japanese, and Farsi. Her most recent books are the novel SWEET HEARTS and the story collection FIRST, BODY. Melanie's new fiction appears in the O. HENRY PRIZE STORIES 2006, PUSHCART PRIZE XXX and XXXII, and the literary journals AGNI, FIVE POINTS, CONJUNCTIONS, GLIMMER TRAIN, IDAHO REVIEW, VIRGINIA QUARTERLY, and ANTIOCH REVIEW. Before coming to Utah in 2000, she taught literature and writing at Emerson College, Boston University, University of Massachusetts, Syracuse University, and the Ohio State University. In 2008, she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Melanie Rae Thon is originally from Montana.
Selected Publications:
First, Body
(Book), 1998
Girls in the Grass
(Book), 1991
Pushcart Prize XXVII
(Journal Article), 2003
Sweet Hearts
(Novel), 2002
Iona Moon
(Novel), 1993
Meteors in August
(Novel), 1990
Pushcart Prize XXXII
(Short Story), 2008
Best Stories of the American West
(Short Story), 2007
Peculiar Pilgrims: Stories from the Left Hand of God
(Short Story), 2007
The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, second edition
(Short Story), 2007
A Geography of the Heart
(Short Story), 2006
O. Henry Prize Stories
(Short Story), 2006
Pushcart Prize XXX
(Short Story), 2006
The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction
(Short Story), 1999
Best American Short Stories
(Short Story), 1996
Granta's Best Young American Novelists
(Short Story), 1996
The Penguin Book of International Women Writers
(Short Story), 1996
Best American Short Stories
(Short Story), 1995
Research Statement
My work as a creative writer leads me in many directions: from history of the Holocaust to the study of American Sign Language, from the lives of homeless children to the treatment of leukemia. I may need to visit every Indian Reservation in Montana or climb a mountain in the Absarokas, witness an autopsy or teach creative writing to women in prison. In a recent class, my students and I investigated the ways people of different cultures understand spiritual and physical healing, the cycle of life and death, and the lives of individuals as they relate to the life of the community and the natural environment. To explore these questions we read the work of a Vietnamese Buddhist, a Sufi poet, an Indian novelist, a survivor of four Nazi death camps, and a Catholic nun who has served as a spiritual advisor to men on Death Row. Walker Percy says, "The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair."
Research Keywords, Regions of Interest and Languages:
Keywords:
Creative Writing; Criminal Law (6); Religious Studies; Visual Arts (3)
Regions:
Africa (9); Europe (36); North America (29); USA, Northwest (12)
Research Projects
The Voice of the River, a novel [details]
Current Courses
ENGL 5510-1 Fiction Workshop
ENGL 5910-1 Studies Crit/Theory
Courses I Teach
ENGL 2700 Diversity In Amer Lit
ENGL 5050 Studies In Genre
ENGL 5510 Fiction Workshop
ENGL 5910 Studies Crit/Theory
ENGL 7020 Novel Writing Workshop
ENGL 7030 Fiction Workshop
Awards
2009
Tanner Humanities Center Fellowship - University of Utah
2008
Pushcart Prize XXXII - Pushcart Press
2008
Faculty Fellow Award - University of Utah
2008
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship - National Endowment for the Arts
2006
Pushcart Prize XXX - Pushcart Press
2006
O. Henry Prize Stories - Random House
2005
Lannan Foundation Residency - Lannan Foundation
2005
Post-Tenure Research Assignment - University of Utah
2003
Pushcart Prize XXVII - Pushcart Press
2002
Utah Arts Council Fellowship for Fiction - Utah Arts Council
2002
Faculty Fellow Award - University of Utah
2000
Ohio Arts Council Fellowship for Fiction - Ohio Arts Council
2000
Paul Bowles Prize for Fiction - Five Points
1998
Graduate Professor of the Year, Ohio State University - Ohio State University, Department of English
1997
Whiting Writer's Award - The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation
1997
Special Research Assignment, Ohio State University - Ohio State University
1996
New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for Fiction - New York Foundation for the Arts
1996
Granta's Best Young American Novelists - Granta Magazine
1996
Best American Short Stories - Houghton Mifflin
1995
Best American Short Stories - Houghton Mifflin
1992
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship - National Endowment for the Arts
1988
Massachusetts Artists Foundation Fellowship - Massachusetts Artist Foundation
1980
Virginia Voss Memorial Award - University of Michigan
1980
Jule and Avery Hopwood Award - University of Michigan