Marcia Butler | |
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 Butler at BookExpo America in 2019 | |
| Born | January 5, 1955 |
| Alma mater | Mannes School of Music |
Marcia Butler (born January 5, 1955) is an American writer. [1] [2] She is the author of the nationally acclaimed memoir The Skin Above My Knee (2017). Prior to her writing career, she was a professional oboist in New York City for 28 years until her retirement in 2008. [3]
Butler grew up in Massachusetts and New York. Having begun her oboe training in junior high school, she attended Mannes School of Music on a full scholarship. [4]
Since 1980, Butler performed as principal oboist and soloist on many New York and international stages, receiving acclaim from the New York Times as a "first-rate artist". She performed and recorded over 100 works by living composers, including dozens of New York and World Premiers.
Her collaborators include pianist Andre Watts, composer and pianist Keith Jarrett and soprano Dawn Upshaw. [5] She was awarded a grant for solo recital at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall by the League of Composers/International Society of Contemporary Music. She was the only American to be invited to perform Elliot Carter's Oboe Concerto. [6] She has served on the musical faculty of Columbia University.
Changing careers, Butler started her interior design firm in 2002, serving over a hundred private clients across New York City, New England and Florida. In the coming years, her design work was featured in various shelter magazines and web publications, including Design Bureau Magazine, [7] Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn, [8] Gourmet Business Magazine, [9] and Home & Textiles Today. [10] She received of the Design Excellence Award from the International Interior Design Association in 2005. [11]
In 2016, Butler retired from design and transitioned into a writing career. Her debut memoir The Skin Above My Knee was published by Little, Brown and Company in 2017. One of The Washington Post's "37 Books We've Loved So Far in 2017," [12] the memoir chronicles her difficult childhood with a distant mother and abusive father, musical education, and coming-of-age as a musician in New York City. [13] She has published essays on themes of abuse, trauma, relationships and music on Psychology Today, [14] Literary Hub, [15] Ducts [16] and Pank Magazine. [17] Butler is also a breast cancer survivor and has written about her experience of illness and treatment. [18] [19]
Butler was a Writer-in-Residence through Aspen Words and the Catto Shaw Foundation in 2015. [20]
Collaborating with artists and writers such as Nancy Zafris, Butler continues to write and speak about music, [21] writing and creativity across the different disciplines. [22] She lives in New York City and is currently working on a book of fiction.
Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Rochester, New York, she was raised in Los Angeles, California, where her father was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduating from Los Angeles's Otis College of Art and Design, she moved to New York City to begin an art career. There, she formed Sonic Youth with Thurston Moore in 1981. She and Moore married in 1984, and the band released a total of six albums on independent labels before the end of the 1980s. They would subsequently release nine studio albums on the major label DGC Records, beginning with Goo in 1990. Gordon was also a founding member of the musical project Free Kitten, which she formed with Julia Cafritz in 1993.
Marcia Gay Harden is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Tony Award, in addition to nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Marcia Elaine Hines AM is an American-born Australian singer and TV personality. Hines made her debut, at the age of 16, in the Australian production of the stage musical Hair and followed with the role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar.
Deborah Anne Dyer, known mononymously by the stage name Skin and often erroneously as the name of her band Skunk Anansie, is a British singer, songwriter and electronic music DJ. She is the lead vocalist of British rock band Skunk Anansie, a band often grouped as part of the Britrock movement in the UK, and has gained attention for her powerful, wide-ranging soprano voice and striking look.
Marcia Davenport was an American writer and music critic. She is best known for her 1932 biography of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the first American published biography of Mozart. Davenport also is known for her novels The Valley of Decision and East Side, West Side, both of which were adapted to film in 1945 and 1949, respectively.
Catherine Ann Cora is an American professional chef, television personality, business person, and cookbook author. She is best known for her featured role as an "Iron Chef" on Iron Chef America and as co-host of Around the World in 80 Plates.
Kristen Angela Johnston is an American actress. Best known for her work on television sitcoms, she twice won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Sally Solomon in 3rd Rock from the Sun. She starred as divorce attorney Holly Franklin on The Exes, and as recovering addict Tammy Diffendorf on Mom. She has also appeared in the films Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000), Ice Age (2002), Music and Lyrics (2007), and Bride Wars (2009).
Gourmet magazine was a monthly publication of Condé Nast and the first U.S. magazine devoted to food and wine. The New York Times noted that "Gourmet was to food what Vogue is to fashion." Founded by Earle R. MacAusland (1890–1980), Gourmet, first published in January 1941, also covered "good living" on a wider scale, and grew to incorporate culture, travel, and politics into its food coverage. James Oseland, an author and editor in chief of rival food magazine Saveur, called Gourmet "an American cultural icon."
Bon Appétit is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, and has been in publication since 1956. Bon Appétit has been recognized for increasing its online presence in recent years through the use of social media, publishing recipes on their website, and maintaining a popular YouTube channel.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a two-volume French cookbook written by Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, both from France, and Julia Child, who was from the United States. The book was written for the American market and published by Knopf in 1961 and 1970.
Ruth Reichl, is an American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and has been co-producer of PBS's Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS's Gourmet's Adventures With Ruth, and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. She has won six James Beard Foundation Awards.
Minka Dumont Kelly is an American actress. She rose to fame for her role as Lyla Garrity on the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights (2006–2009). In 2011, Kelly starred in the films The Roommate and Searching for Sonny, had a recurring role as Gaby on NBC's family drama series Parenthood (2010–2011) and a main role as Eve French in the revival of ABC's action series Charlie's Angels (2011). Kelly portrayed Dawn Granger / Dove on the first three seasons of the DC Universe/Max superhero series Titans (2018–2021).
Gail Simmons is a Canadian food writer and cookbook author. She has served as a permanent judge on Bravo's Emmy-winning series Top Chef since the show's inception in 2006. Simmons was previously the head critic on Top Chef Duels and host of Top Chef: Just Desserts, Bravo's pastry-focused spin-off of the Top Chef franchise. She was also the co-host of The Feed, which aired in 2014 on FYI, A+E's new lifestyle network. In addition to her work on Top Chef, Gail makes frequent television appearances on NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America, among others. She has been featured in such publications as New York magazine, Travel + Leisure, GQ, People, Los Angeles Times, and more.
Colette Sol Rossant was a French-American cookbook author, journalist, translator, and restaurateur, who was a member of the Pallache family.
Roxane Gay is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of The New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist (2014), as well as the short story collection Ayiti (2011), the novel An Untamed State (2014), the short story collection Difficult Women (2017), and the memoir Hunger (2017).
Marcia Ann Gillespie is an African-American magazine editor, writer, professor, media and management consultant, and racial and gender justice activist. She previously served as editor-in-chief of Essence magazine and Ms. magazine. She co-authored the authorized biography Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration, and is currently working on her own memoir titled When Blacks Became Americans. She teaches media and communications at SUNY Old Westbury College as a visiting professor.
Della Thompson Lutes was an American writer, editor, and expert on cooking and housekeeping. Her 1936 memoir and cookbook The Country Kitchen won a National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Bisa Butler is an American fiber artist who has created a new genre of quilting that has transformed the medium. Although quilting has long been considered a craft, her interdisciplinary methods—which create quilts that look like paintings—have catapulted quilting into the field of fine art. She is known for her vibrant, quilted portraits celebrating Black life, portraying both everyday people and notable historical figures. Her works now count among the permanent collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Art Institute of Chicago, Pérez Art Museum Miami and about a dozen other art museums nationwide. She has also exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Epcot Center, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and many other venues. In 2020, she was commissioned to quilt cover images for Time magazine, including the "Person of the Year" issue and its "100 Women of the Year" issue. With a multi-year wait list for private commissions, one of Butler's quilts sold at auction in 2021 for $75,000 USD.
Claire Saffitz is an American food writer, chef, and YouTube personality. Until mid-2020, she was a contributing editor at Bon Appétit magazine and starred in several series on the Bon Appétit YouTube channel, including Gourmet Makes, in which she created gourmet versions of popular snack foods by reverse engineering them. Since leaving the company, she has published two cookbooks, Dessert Person and What's for Dessert, which both became New York Times Best Sellers. She has continued work as a video host on her own YouTube channel and as a freelance recipe developer, including for New York Times Cooking.
Cleora Butler (1901–1985) was a chef, caterer and cookbook writer based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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