Featured Writers

Scores of exceptional young writers published in Merlyn's Pen (1985-2001) remain serious about writing in college and beyond.  As adults, they become poets, journalists, short story authors, English teachers, and novelists. Early works by the prize-winning authors below are found in the Merlyn's Pen New Library of Young Adult Writing at www.merlynspen.org. Find them by last name.

 

AMITY GAIGE is the author of the acclaimed novel O My DARLING (Other Press), selected in 2006 by the National Book Foundation for its "5 Under 35" list. This list each year honors the achievements of five first-time fiction writers. Ms. Gaige teaches creative writing at Mount Holyoke College. Her second novel, THE FOLDED WORLD, the story of an idealistic young social worker drawn into the lives of his mentally ill clients, appeared in May 2007. The New York Times Book Review called it a "tightly written and emotionally satisfying novel. . . . Gaige is . . . extraordinarily adept at revealing her characters’ personalities in just a few words.”

 

DARA HORN published her first novel, IN THE IMAGE (W.W. Norton), when she was 25. The novel received a 2003 National Jewish Book Award, the 2002 Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and the 2003 Reform Judaism Fiction Prize. It was also chosen as one of the Best Books of 2002 by the San Francisco Chronicle ("stunning and absorbing") and one of the Top Five Novels of 2002 by the Christian Science Monitor ("a work of raw genius"). Her second novel, THE WORLD TO COME (Norton), won the 2006 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and was picked as  "Editors Choice" by the New York Times Books Review (a "rich, complex and haunting novel"). Her third novel, ALL OTHER NIGHTS: A NOVEL, was released in 2009 to wide acclaim: "Superb," said the Washington Post. "Engrossing" cheered the New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice), and the Forward called it "Riveting."

 

CURTIS SITTENFELD'S novel  PREP was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of 2005 by The New York Times  and nominated for the UK's Orange Prize. About her second novel, THE MAN OF MY DREAMS, The New York Times Book Review said, "Sittenfeld proves herself once again to be a rigorous and wily stylist. She writes clear, funny, unadorned prose, and packs her pages with clever observations without appearing to be trying. . . .  The Man of My Dreams shows us a writer who is in it for the long haul." Her third novel, the best-selling AMERICAN WIFE, was recently reviewed by Joyce Carol Oates in the New York Times Book Review.

 

 

ASMA HASAN is the author of WHY I AM A MUSLIM  (HarperCollins Thorsons/Element 2004) and AMERICAN MUSLIMS: A NEW GENERATION (Continuum 2000). Hasan has been a columnist for The Denver Post and The Pakistan Link newspapers. Her op-eds have been published in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Dallas Morning News.  She's also been featured on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition on National Public Radio, CNN, C-SPAN, and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.

 

 

 

DAVID BARR KIRTLEY'S short fiction has been published in the magazines Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, On Spec, Cicada, and Read. His story "Save Me Plz" was selected for the 2008 edition of Fantasy: The Best of the Year. A screenplay adaptation of his story "Lest We Forget" was shot as a short film and shown at the New York Independent Film and Video Festival. He’s been profiled as part of "Speculative Fiction: The Next Generation" by Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.