LITERATURE: NON-FICTION
Ashley Shelby
Hometown:
Minneapolis
Statement:
I am a writer and journalist, whose work ranges from literary short stories to personal essays to long-form nonfiction. My fiction has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies and my journalism has appeared in magazines such as The Nation, Sierra, E: The Environmental Magazine, Gastronomica, and others. In my nonfiction, I focus on environmental, political, and consumer issues. I maintain a blog on these topics at www.scienceforsale.com
Background:
Shelby is the author of Red River Rising: The Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of an American City, which was praised by Salon, the Associated Press, Philadelphia Inquirer, Library Journal, and other media outlets. Her journalism, essays, op/eds, and fiction have been widely published and anthologized. She co-founded and curated the KGB Bar Nonfiction Reading Series in New York’s East Village, where she hosted authors such as Sebastian Junger and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. Shelby, who was awarded the William Faulkner Short Fiction Award in 2002, received an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. She has taught nonfiction writing at Gotham Writers’ Workshop in Manhattan and the art of the memoir at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
Before moving back to Minnesota, Shelby was an Associate Editor at Penguin Group (USA) Inc. in New York, where she specialized in political and social issue nonfiction, memoir, and narrative journalism. While at Penguin, she acquired and edited books such as The United States of Wal-Mart by John Dicker, Persian Girls by Nahid Rachlin, Buddha’s Warriors by Mikel Dunham, Now Write by Sherry Ellis, Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession by Don Kulick and Anne Meneley, and many more. She specialized in first-time authors.
Upcoming:
I will be at the Red Hot Arts Festival in Minneapolis, sharing a booth with visual artist Marissa Grasnick. Stop by and say hello!
Other:
I am the founding director of Mill City Writers' Workshop in Minneapolis, where I teach workshops and seminars on various aspects of craft and publishing. More information can be found at www.millcitywriters.com.
Red River Rising: The Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of an American City
Shelby has written a detailed account of the disaster and its aftermath. . . . Drawing on news stories, government documents, and interviews with residents, Shelby presents a readable, thoughtful, and eyeopening account of a possibly unpreventable natural disaster and how it brings out the best and worst in people." -- Library Journal"A well-researched portrait of a city coping with a crisis." -- Publishers Weekly
"Red River Rising is a beautifully written, haunting saga of a community in distress. Although the touchstone of this narrative is April 19, 1997, when one of the worst floods in U.S. history occurred, in truth it's a gripping human drama with timeless appeal. Words cannot fully express the admiration I have for Ashley Shelby's seamless and compassionate prose-style." -- Douglas Brinkley, author of Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War and director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans
"Red River Rising is a well-researched compelling narrative that increases in suspense as the water rises. Ashley Shelby depicts a city in crisis while conveying dramatically the complexity of intergovernmental workings and interpersonal relationships." -- Douglas Whynott, author of A Unit of Water, a Unit of Time
"This book does a terrific job in recapturing the setting, the sequence, the science, and the sorrows of the traumatic 1997 spring flood on the Red River of the North along the Minnesota-North Dakota Border. . . . An interesting and balanced story about one of the worst floods of the twentieth century and how Midwesterners coped with it." -- Mark Seeley, Professor of Climatology and Meteorology, University of Minnesota
Completion Date: 2004
Price: $10,000.00
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