Rebecca Donner is a Canadian-born writer. She is the author of ''All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days,'' which won the 2022

National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography The National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, established in 1983, is an annual American literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization ( 501(c) ...

, the

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography The PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award is awarded by the PEN America PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression i ...

, and The Chautauqua Prize. She is currently a 2023 Visiting Scholar at Oxford, and will be a 2023-2024 Fellow at Harvard.

Biography

Donner was born in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, and during childhood lived in Japan, Michigan, Virginia, and California. She received her BA from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and MFA from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. She taught writing at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

. She wrote “Sunset Terrace,” a novel set in Los Angeles, followed by “Burnout,” a graphic novel about ecoterrorism. In 2021, Donner published a biography, ''All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days,'' of her great-great-aunt,

Mildred Harnack Mildred Elizabeth Harnack ( Fish; September 16, 1902 – February 16, 1943) was an American literary historian, translator, and member of the German resistance against the Nazi regime. After marrying Arvid Harnack, she moved to Germany in 192 ...

, an American who was part of the

Nazi resistance Many individuals and groups in Germany that were opposed to the Nazi regime engaged in active resistance, including attempts to remove Adolf Hitler from power by assassination or by overthrowing his established regime. German resistance was n ...

in Germany and was executed in 1943 on Hitler's orders. * * The book won the

, the

, and The Chautauqua Prize ''All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days'' was also a finalist for the Plutarch Award and the

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ( ...

, and a shortlisted nominee for the

Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction The Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a non-fiction book written in English. Since 1987 it is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Litera ...

at the

2022 Governor General's Awards The shortlisted nominees for the 2022 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were announced on October 12, 2022,Adina Bresge"Sheila Heti, Anne Carson among finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Awards" ''Toronto Star'', October 12, ...

. Donner received a 2022

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in the general nonfiction category. Donner is currently a 2023 Visiting Scholar at Oxford. She will be a 2023-2024 Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

Works

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donner, Rebecca Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni Columbia University School of the Arts alumni 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian biographers Canadian women biographers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Canadian women writers