Melissa Holbrook Pierson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | December 14, 1957 [1] Akron, Ohio |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Citizenship | American |
| Education | A.B. Vassar College 1980 M.A. Columbia University 1984 [1] |
| Notable works | The Perfect Vehicle: What It Is About Motorcycles |
| Website | |
| www | |
Melissa Holbrook Pierson (born December 14, 1957) [1] is an American writer and essayist of non-fiction.
Pierson was born in Akron, Ohio. She attended Vassar College, receiving her AB in English Literature in 1980. Her MA, also in English Literature, was awarded in 1984 by Columbia University.[ citation needed ]
She is a lifelong motorcycle enthusiast and this is reflected in many of her books. Her works are often explorations of personal experience, extended into general social commentary and history. She is a longtime book, film, and photography critic, and reviewed film on video for Entertainment Weekly, 1990 - 1999.[ citation needed ]
When asked in an interview, "Do you consider yourself a travel writer, a kind of 'place writer', a nature writer, or—" Pierson answered, "All of those things. I don't think of myself as fitting into a category. But I had to be careful in all of my books not to repeat things, because I have these ideas, and though the subjects were disparate, the same idea would come up through different portals." [2]
The Place You Love is Gone was described by Anthony Swofford in The New York Times Book Review as "the punk rock girl sitting in the rear pews at church, offering a counter narrative: what she says about the patriarchy and the raping of the land (and the Indians and dairy farmers and denizens of small towns in upstate New York) is true but the priests (elected politicians and water managers and ambitious city planners) wish her parents would drag the girl home; the organ player pipes louder in order to drown the punk's anti-establishment rant." [3]
Rice burner is a pejorative term originally applied to Japanese motorcycles and which later expanded to include Japanese cars or any East Asian-made vehicles. Variations include rice rocket, referring most often to Japanese superbikes, rice machine, rice grinder or simply ricer.
The Iron Butt Association (IBA) is a US-based organization dedicated to safe long-distance motorcycle riding, which claims membership of over 75,000 people.
Ars Technica is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games.
Condé Nast Traveler is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine published by Condé Nast. The magazine has won 25 National Magazine Awards.
Mary Roach is an American author specializing in popular science and humor. She has published seven New York Times bestsellers: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003), Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005), Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008), Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (2010), Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013), Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (2016), and Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (2021).
Michael Monroe Lewis is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to Vanity Fair since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. He is known for his nonfiction work, particularly his coverage of financial crises and behavioral finance.
Susan Wise Bauer is an American author, English instructor of writing and American literature at The College of William and Mary, and founder of Well-Trained Mind Press.
Linda K. Hogan is an American poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories. She previously served as the Chickasaw Nation's writer in residence. Hogan is a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.
Motorcycle touring is a format of tourism that involves a motorcycle. It has been a subject of note since at least 1915.
Lucy Sante is a Belgian-born American writer, critic, and artist. She is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Her books include Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (1991) and I Heard Her Call My Name (2024).
David Stuart Roberts was an American climber, mountaineer, college professor, and author of books and articles about climbing and the history of the American Southwest. He was particularly noted for his books The Mountain of My Fear and Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative, chronicling major ascents in Alaska in the 1960s, which had a major impact on the form of mountaineering literature.
Deyan Sudjic is a British writer and broadcaster, specialising in the fields of design and architecture. He was formerly the director of the Design Museum, London.
Artisans of Leisure is a luxury travel company offering private cultural tours in international destinations. The company offers tours in 70 countries on six continents.
Rosanna Phelps Warren is an American poet and scholar.
Ann Hood is an American novelist and short story writer; she has also written nonfiction. The author of fourteen novels, four memoirs, a short story collection, a ten book series for middle readers and one young adult novel. Her essays and short stories have appeared in many journals, magazines, and anthologies, including The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Tin House. Hood is a regular contributor to The New York Times' Op-Ed page, Home Economics column. Her most recent work is "Fly Girl: A Memoir," published with W.W. Norton and Company in 2022.
Major Jackson is an American poet and professor at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of six collections of poetry: Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems 2002-2022, The Absurd Man, Roll Deep, Holding Company, Hoops, finalist for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature-Poetry, and Leaving Saturn, winner of the 2000 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and finalist for a National Book Critics Award Circle. His edited volumes include: Best American Poetry 2019, Renga for Obama, and Library of America's Countee Cullen: Collected Poems. His prose is published in A Beat Beyond: Selected Prose of Major Jackson. He is host of the podcast The Slowdown.
The Daimler Reitwagen or Einspur was a motor vehicle made by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1885. It is widely recognized as the first motorcycle. Daimler is often called "the father of the motorcycle" for this invention. Even when the steam powered two-wheelers that preceded the Reitwagen, the Michaux-Perreaux and Roper of 1867–1869, and the 1884 Copeland, are considered motorcycles, it remains nonetheless the first gasoline internal combustion motorcycle, and the forerunner of all vehicles, land, sea and air, that use its overwhelmingly popular engine type.
Clara Marian Wagner was one of the first documented woman motorcyclists, who became notable as an endurance racer and was sponsored by the Eclipse Machine Co., a bicycle company, for using its braking products.
Steven Lynn Thompson is an author, magazine journalist, historian of technology and former motorcycle racer.
Yolanda Edwards is an American writer, editor, and media executive. She is the former creative director of Conde Nast Traveler magazine, and is the founder and publisher of Yolo Journal. Edwards was also the former executive editor at Martha Stewart Living, Travel and lifestyle editor at Cookie magazine, and a photo editor at W magazine. Since leaving Condé Nast, her byline has also appeared in Domino magazine.