City of Springfield
Mameve Medwed Massachusetts Book Award Series |
 |
More about the author:
I was born in Bangor, Maine in a household of readers and collectors. Though my parents had ventured to big cities for school and museums, the center of their universe was Bangor, illustrated by their treasure trove of books, maps, old prints, paintings about Maine. I learned early to appreciate the small telling domestic detail, the humble bit of pottery, the awkward but charming folk painting. In my writing, too, I always go for the tiny moment, the Bangor rather than the New York, that stands in for the larger world.
In my family, the arts were valued above the practical. My early poems about snow on the roof or pigeons in the attic, my drawings of ballet dancers and Halloween ghosts papered the kitchen walls. At seven, I started sending poems and cartoons to the New Yorker. I felt I had done my job, that I was only a postage stamp away from publication. I was astonished when my creations were sent back, though soon enough I learned to be overjoyed when a real person signed the rejection slip. Undaunted, I kept writing because I loved it, because I was encouraged by old-fashioned teachers who had taught all my aunts and uncles, my parents, and my cousins in high school. And because reading books seemed the noblest adventure imaginable.
At 21, I married the three-year-old I made sandcastles with in nursery school. We moved to Cambridge, a slice of heaven to me, bookstores open all night, ethnic restaurants, films with subtitles, museums, and a community of strangers in Harvard Square who didn't know your whole family, who hadn't witnessed your stage fright as Amanda Wingate in the high school auditorium.
Except for one summer taking inventory in an auto parts store, all my work life has revolved around writing-- short stories, essays, book reviews, novels, and teaching writing. Aside from teaching, I've had the luxury of sitting in front of the keyboard in my pajamas with no dress-for-success anxiety.
My husband and I have two enchanting grown obsessive-reader sons and have lived for thirty years in the same 1860 red Victorian house on a hill in Cambridge.
Praise for Mameve Medwed
How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life (2006)
*Winner of the 2007 Massachusetts Book Award Honor for Fiction
"Beyond the funny, gentle ribbing of Cantabrigians and their ways, both Abby and her chamber pot find some resolution. If you ever went to Harvard, hung out in Harvard Square hoping to run into some cute single person, or just grew up in the shadow of an academic superstar, you'll likely look fondly on Medwed's Cambridge tale." - Washington Post
"This is a novel as delicious as its title...don't be deceived by Medwed's light touch and irrepressible sense of humor. Here is a canny writer with a distinctive voice...a charming wry romp [with a] more profound problem that lingers, compelling us to confront our own bonds with our diverse objects of desire." - The Boston Globe
"The reader roots for Abby as she faces her weaknesses and ultimately comes out ahead. At times, Abby addresses the audience as a trusted friend, which allows the story to come across as charming and funny without being precious. Abby is a thoroughly believable character, with flaws and strengths that many readers will recognize. Highly recommended for all public libraries." - Library Journal (starred review)
"..an adventure to which Jane Austen might have raised a celebratory glass of port....A whole lot of fun." - Kirkus Reviews
"A buoyant dramady." - Publishers' Weekly
"Packed with raffish charm." - Entertainment Weekly
"A wryly funny, compulsively readable novel about antiques, lost love, and how we come to appreciate the true value of the people and things in our lives. Mameve Medwed is that rare novelist who is simultaneously entertaining and insightful." - Tom Perrotta
"Smart, witty, and delicious. Medwed's best work to date. This is a must-have for anyone who has ever seen Antiques Roadshow and fantasized about what that old painting in the attic might be worth." - Anita Shreve
"Mameve Medwed's How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life may not save your life, but it will cheer you up considerably; a briskly droll comedy of modern manners." - Gregory Maguire
The End of an Error (2003)*On sale in trade paperback April 1, 2008
"A provocative and funny story about a woman still enthralled by her first love." - Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
"Medwed...has a gift for descriptive detail, finding pathos and humor in the stuff of everyday life. The End of an Error is...engaging. The ending...leaves the door open for whatever may come next." - The Boston Globe
"The book underscores a poignant dilemma...Medwed's specialty lies in the delicious mischief...and the intimate liveliness she brings to her characters." - Improper Bostonian
"Lusting women will bond with this novel's heroine who considers leaving her family for a world of impulse and romance." - Glamour
"Medwed's writing is superb, as are her observations of the human condition and the intricacies of married relationships." - The Pilot
"The author is a practiced hand at warmhearted...fiction...an enjoyable read that could provoke both smiles and tears." - Publishers' Weekly
"This witty and diverting, even enchanting, look at middle age should make Medwed a household name." - Booklist
"In these engrossing characters...Medwed has achieved her finest work yet...a pure delight to read." - Arthur Golden
Host Family (2000)
"A cuttingly funny yet heartwarming tale full of hilarious twists and practical wisdom." - Publishers' Weekly
"A penetrating look at the different forms that the family takes...It's the gentle humor, delivered with subtle grace, that makes this book an enjoyable read." - Denver Post
Mail (1997)
"Wacky...funny...an off the wall send-up of the take-charge-of your-life novel." - The New York Times
"If novels can't be Tolstoy, they'd better be this." - Fay Weldon
For more about the author, visit her website at: www.mamevemedwed.com.
Back to the Massachusetts Book Award Author Series
Home | Catalog | Databases | Branches | Kids | Teens | Calendar | Site Index