Maryanne Vollers

Last updated

Maryanne Vollers is an American author, journalist and ghostwriter. Her first book, Ghosts of Mississippi, was a finalist in non-fiction for the 1995 National Book Award. [1] [2] Her many collaborations include the memoirs of Hillary Rodham Clinton, [3] Dr. Jerri Nielsen, [4] Sissy Spacek, [5] Ashley Judd, [6] and Billie Jean King. [7] Her second book on domestic terrorism, Lone Wolf:  Eric Rudolph – Murder, Myth, and the Pursuit of an American Outlaw, was published in 2006. [8] [9] A former editor at Rolling Stone [10] she has written articles for publications such as Esquire, GQ, Sports Illustrated, Time, [11] and The New York Times Magazine. [12]

Contents

Life

Vollers was born in Yorktown Heights, New York, the daughter of a New York City fire chief and a court clerk. She attended Yorktown High School, and graduated from Brown University in Providence, RI in 1977. [13] She has lived in Nairobi, Kenya, and Johannesburg, South Africa, where she worked as a Time magazine stringer, radio newscaster, and field producer for NBC News, covering wars, politics, health and cultural issues across the continent and around the world. [14]

Once back in the states, Vollers covered domestic terrorism, including articles on the Oklahoma City Bombing, the militia movement, [15] anti-abortion violence, the trial of white supremacist Byron de La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers, which resulted in her book, Ghosts of Mississippi, followed a decade later by Lone Wolf, on the Olympic Park and abortion clinic bomber, Eric Rudolph. [16]

Now based in Montana, she and her husband, documentary photographer, director, and producer William Campbell create news features and documentaries on political, social and environmental issues. Their PBS-ITVS documentary, Wolves in Paradise, was about the human costs and benefits of the reintroduction of wolves in the Yellowstone region. [17] [18]

Work with Yeonmi Park

Vollers co-authored the biography of North Korean defector Yeonmi Park, whose claims about her life as a child in North Korea have been questioned by journalists, professors of Korean studies, and fellow North Korean defectors. The 2015 book titled In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom – written in English and published in the United States – contained a different and more negative account of her life in North Korea than the stories Park had previously told to audiences in South Korea. [19]

Before the book was published, an SBS journalist who had previously worked with Park on a documentary found numerous inconsistencies in Park's stories of life in Korea. [20] Vollers defended Park from these accusations, stating that most of Park's jumbled recollections were due to her not yet being fluent in English, and that she was being targeted by a North Korean government smear campaign. [21] A 2023 article in the The Washington Post similarly found inconsistencies in many of Park's stories about life in North Korea. [22]

Works

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sissy Spacek</span> American actress and singer (born 1949)

Mary Elizabeth "Sissy" Spacek is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and nominations for four BAFTA Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. Spacek was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.

<i>Badlands</i> (film) 1973 American film by Terrence Malick

Badlands is a 1973 American neo-noir period crime drama film written, produced and directed by Terrence Malick, in his directorial debut. The film stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, and follows Holly Sargis (Spacek), a 15-year old who goes on a killing spree with her partner, Kit Carruthers (Sheen). The film also stars Warren Oates and Ramon Bieri. While the story is fictional, it is loosely based on the real-life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, in 1958.

A lone wolf attack, or lone actor attack, is a particular kind of mass murder, committed in a public setting by an individual who plans and commits the act on their own. In the United States, such attacks are usually committed with firearms. In other countries, knives are sometimes used to commit mass stabbings. Although definitions vary, most databases require a minimum of four victims for the event to be considered a mass murder.

Julie Orringer is an American novelist, short story writer, and professor. She attended Cornell University and the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She was born in Miami, Florida and now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, fellow writer Ryan Harty. She is the author of The Invisible Bridge, a New York Times bestseller, and How to Breathe Underwater, a collection of stories; her novel, The Flight Portfolio, tells the story of Varian Fry, the New York journalist who went to Marseille in 1940 to save writers and artists blacklisted by the Gestapo. The novel inspired the Netflix series Transatlantic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen Russell</span> American writer (born 1981)

Karen Russell is an American novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 2009 the National Book Foundation named Russell a 5 under 35 honoree. She was also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanne Marie Laskas</span> American writer and academic

Jeanne Marie Laskas is an American writer, journalist, and professor.

Barbara Demick is an American journalist. She was the Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood. Her second book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, was published by Spiegel & Grau/Random House in December 2009 and Granta Books in 2010. Her third book Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town, focusing on the life of Tibetan people in Ngaba, Sichuan, China, was published in July 2020 by Random House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren Kate</span> American writer (born 1981)

Lauren Kate is an American author of adult and young adult fiction. Thus far she has published thirteen novels and one novella. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages, have sold more than eleven million copies worldwide, and have spent combined months on the New York Times Best Seller list.

David M. Granger is an American journalist. He was editor-in-chief of Esquire Magazine from June 1997 until March 2016. Granger is a literary agent and media consultant working with Aevitas Creative Management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nova Ren Suma</span> American novelist

Nova Ren Suma is an American #1 New York Times best selling author of young adult novels. Her best-known work is The Walls Around Us. Her novels have twice been finalists for the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult from Mystery Writers of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Hearne</span> American writer

Kevin Hearne is an American-Canadian fantasy novelist originally hailing from Arizona, now residing in Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethany Barton</span> American author and illustrator

Bethany Barton is an author and illustrator of children's books, as well as an Emmy-nominated Propmaster for film & TV. Barton's books combine colorful illustrations, humor, science communication and storytelling that aims to make STEAM-related topics enjoyable for kids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yeonmi Park</span> North Korean defector and activist (born 1993)

Yeonmi Park is a North Korean defector, YouTuber, author, and American conservative activist, described as "one of the most famous North Korean defectors in the world". She fled from North Korea to China in 2007 at age 13 before moving to South Korea, then to the United States. Park made her media debut in 2011 on the show Now On My Way to Meet You, where she was dubbed "Paris Hilton" due to her stories of her family's wealthy lifestyle. She came to wider global attention after her speech at the 2014 One Young World Summit in Dublin, Ireland. Park's memoir, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom, was published in 2015, and as of 2023 has sold over 100,000 copies. During the 2020s, she became a voice for American conservatism with speeches, podcasts and the 2023 publication of her second book, While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America.

Jeff Gordinier is an American writer and editor whose work is frequently published in various U.S. magazines and newspapers, including Esquire and The New York Times. In addition, he is the author of two books of non-fiction, X Saves the World and Hungry: Eating, Road-tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World, and co-editor of a book containing a collection of essays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Park</span> American journalist and novelist

Ed Park is an American journalist and novelist. He was the executive editor of Penguin Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. O. Kwon</span> American novelist

R. O. Kwon is a South Korean–born American author. In 2018, she published her nationally bestselling debut novel The Incendiaries with Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen M. Silverman</span> American journalist and biographer (1951–2023)

Stephen Meredith Silverman was an American biographer, journalist, and editor. He was chief entertainment correspondent for the New York Post from 1977 to 1988, and was a news editor at Time Inc. from 1995 to 2015, where he founded the People Online Daily. He is also the author of a dozen books of cultural criticism. The Wall Street Journal called him "a veteran journalist and historian of popular culture [who] writes with verve and mischief," while Kirkus Reviews dubbed him "a deft manipulator of the devastating deadpan non-sequitur".

Mark O'Connell is an Irish author and journalist. His debut book, To Be A Machine, was published in 2017, followed by Notes From an Apocalypse in 2020. His third book, A Thread of Violence, was published in 2023. He has written for publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and The Guardian. He is also the author of the Kindle Single Epic Fail: Bad Art, Viral Fame, and the History of the Worst Thing Ever, as well as an academic study of the novels of John Banville.

R. Eric Thomas is an American author, playwright, and television writer. He is best known for his essay collection Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America (2020).

References

  1. "Contributors". TIME . August 26, 1996. Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
  2. "National Book Awards Finalists Announced". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  3. "Maryanne Vollers". Penguin Random House Higher Education. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  4. "Maryanne Vollers | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  5. Daniel, Douglass K. (April 30, 2012). "Actress Sissy Spacek writes tender, touching book". The Seattle Times. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  6. "All That Is Bitter and Sweet by Ashley Judd, Maryanne Vollers: 9780345523624 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  7. "All In by Billie Jean King, Johnette Howard, Maryanne Vollers: 9781101947333 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  8. Maslin, Janet (November 9, 2006). "A Bomber, but Not Your Usual Suspect". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  9. "Lone Wolf". HarperCollins. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  10. "Maryanne Vollers". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  11. "Contributors: Aug. 26, 1996 - TIME". January 17, 2010. Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  12. Vollers, Maryanne (May 20, 2001). "Was This Soccer Mom A Terrorist?". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  13. "Brown University Class of '77". www.hauser.us. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  14. "Vollers, Maryanne 1955– | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  15. VOLLERS, MARYANNE. "The White Woman from Hell | Esquire | JULY 1995". Esquire | The Complete Archive. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  16. Nelson |, Sara. "Probing a Heart of Darkness". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  17. "Wolves in Paradise". KUSM / MontanaPBS. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  18. "ITVS-Wolves in Paradise".
  19. Sommer, Will (July 16, 2023). "A North Korean defector captivated U.S. media. Some question her story". The Washington Post . Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  20. Jolley, Mary Ann (December 10, 2014). "The Strange Tale of Yeonmi Park". The Diplomat . Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  21. Vollers, Maryanne (March 15, 2015). "The woman who faces the wrath of North Korea". The Guardian . Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  22. Sommer, Will (July 16, 2023). "A North Korean defector captivated U.S. media. Some question her story". The Washington Post . Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  23. "In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, Maryanne Vollers: 9780143109747 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  24. Maslin, Janet (November 9, 2006). "Lone Wolf – Maryanne Vollers: New York Times Book Review". The New York Times . Retrieved June 14, 2010.