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March 13, 2013
A WRITER IN THE REAL WORLD
by Fred Ramey
Being a publisher is a privilege. I’m reminded of that every time a new book arrives from the printer. But some authors an editor can be downright humbled to work with….
What astounds me about Masha Hamilton goes beyond the extraordinary empathy of her novels and the artfulness of her story-telling. What humbles me about working with her is the recognition of all she accomplishes in the wider world.
For five years, Masha worked for The Associated Press as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, where she covered the Intifada, the peace process, and the partial Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Afterwards, she spent five years in Moscow as a correspondent for The Los Angeles Times; she also wrote a newspaper column, “Postcard from Moscow,” and reported for NBC/Mutual Radio. During the coup and collapse of the Soviet Union she wrote about Kremlin politics and about what life was like for average Russians under Gorbachev and Yeltsin. In 2004, Masha reported from Afghanistan, and she returned there in 2008. In 2006, while in Kenya researching her third novel, The Camel Bookmobile, she interviewed street kids in Nairobi and drought and famine victims in the isolated northeast.
As a result of all that work in the field, Masha Hamilton’s novels carry a deep authenticity and an earned empathy. And with each successive book, she has turned the notice she’s received back into real-world humanitarian efforts.
In 2007, following the successful publication of The Camel Bookmobile , Masha founded the Camel Book Drive, creating a mobile lending library of over 7,000 titles to serve children in nomadic schools in northeast Kenya.
And in 2009, she opened the Afghan Women’s Writing Project which gave a worldwide voice to Afghan women who have stories to tell of their lives. Since then, the AWWP has worked to foster creative and intellectual exchange between Afghan women writers and American women authors and teachers.
For those efforts, the Women’s National Book Association recognized her meritorious service with the 2010 WNBA Award.
Through her work at the Gotham Writers’ Workshop — and at a number of other writers’ venues around the country — Masha continued to help young authors find their voices. And now she is serving as Director of Communications for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.
This Spring Unbridled will release Masha’s fifth novel, the remarkable What Changes Everything, which Meg Waite Clayton has already called “Quite simply stunning.”
It’s a beautiful novel by a woman whose personal convictions and humanitarian instincts lead her, not only to create, but to do good work in the world. All of us here are boundlessly proud that Unbridled Books is her publisher.
Fred Ramey
Posted in: New Books, Publishers Blog, Our Catalog, | Keywords: 31 hours, afghanistan, fred ramey, masha hamilton, publisher, the distance between us, these things happen, unbridled books
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