Melissa Scholes Young (born 1975) is an American writer.

Life

Scholes Young was born in

Hannibal, Missouri Hannibal is a city along the Mississippi River in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 17,312, making it the largest city in Marion County. The bulk of the city is in Mario ...

. She graduated from

Monmouth College Monmouth College is a private Presbyterian liberal arts college in Monmouth, Illinois. Monmouth enrolls approximately 900 students from 21 countries who choose courses from 40 major programs, 43 minors, and 17 pre-professional programs in a c ...

with a BA in history, from

Stetson University Stetson University is a private university with four colleges and schools located across the I–4 corridor in Central Florida with the primary undergraduate campus in DeLand. The university was founded in 1883 and was later established in 1887 ...

with an MA in education, and from

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...

with an MFA in Creative Writing. She is an associate professor in literature at American University.

Career

Scholes Young edited two volumes of new work by women writers, ''Grace in Darkness'' (2018) and ''Furious Gravity'' (2020), which was featured on the ''Kojo Nnamdi Show'', ''Washington Independent Review of Books'', Medium, and at Politics & Prose Bookstore. She is a contributing editor for ''Fiction Writers Review'' and Editor of the ''Grace & Gravity'' anthology. Her writing has appeared in ''

American Fiction American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

'', ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', ''

Literary Hub Literary Hub is a daily literary website that launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and Electric Literature founder Andy Hunter. Conten ...

'', ''

Ms. Magazine ''Ms.'' is an American feminist magazine co-founded in 1971 by journalist and social/political activist Gloria Steinem. It was the first national American feminist magazine. The original editors were Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Ca ...

'', ''

Narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...

'', '' Origins Literary Magazine'', ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Boston. ...

'', ''

Poet Lore ''Poet Lore'' is an English-language literary magazine based in Bethesda, Maryland. Established in 1889 by Charlotte Porter and Helen Archibald Clarke, two progressive young Shakespeare scholars who believed in the evolutionary nature of literatur ...

'', ''

Poets & Writers Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called ''Poets & Writers Magazine'', ...

'', ''The Washington Independent Review of Books'', and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. Scholes Young attended the

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by ''The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most p ...

in 2014 and was awarded the Bread Loaf Bakeless Camargo Fellowship in 2015. She also published her debut novel, ''Flood'', in 2017. The novel received reviews from residents and press in Hannibal, Missouri: Scholes Young's hometown,

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

's hometown, and the setting and inspiration of the novel. The novel also received attention from the literary community in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and brought rise to Scholes Young's creative writing career as an emerging author in the nation's capital. Scholes Young, sharing a hometown with Mark Twain, has written fiction that reimagines Tom and Huck's famous friendship as female and scholarship concerned with the character portrayal of Becky Thatcher. Scholes Young's second novel, ''The Hive'', is forthcoming in 2021 from Turner Publishing. The novel has been optioned by Sony Entertainment. She teaches in the Department of Literature at

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

where she champions first-generation student issues."First-gen professors reach out to first-gen students,
''Education Advisory Board''
May 11, 2016.

References

External links

Scholes Young, American University Faculty Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Melissa Scholes American women novelists 1975 births Living people 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American writers People from Hannibal, Missouri Novelists from Missouri Monmouth College alumni Stetson University alumni Southern Illinois University alumni American University faculty