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Maryanne Vollers

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Maryanne Vollers is an American author, journalist and ghostwriter. Her first book, Ghosts of Mississippi, was a finalist in non-fiction for the 1995 National Book Award.[1][2] Her many collaborations include the memoirs of Hillary Rodham Clinton,[3] Dr. Jerri Nielsen,[4] Sissy Spacek,[5] Ashley Judd,[6] and Billie Jean King.[7] Her second book on domestic terrorism, Lone Wolf: Eric Rudolph – Murder, Myth, and the Pursuit of an American Outlaw, was published in 2006.[8][9] A former editor at Rolling Stone[10] she has written articles for publications such as Esquire, GQ, Sports Illustrated, Time,[11] and The New York Times Magazine.[12]

Life

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Vollers was born in Yorktown Heights, New York, the daughter of a New York City fire chief and a court clerk. She attended Yorktown High School, and graduated from Brown University in Providence, RI in 1977.[13] She has lived in Nairobi, Kenya, and Johannesburg, South Africa, where she worked as a Time magazine stringer, radio newscaster, and field producer for NBC News, covering wars, politics, health and cultural issues across the continent and around the world.[14]

Once back in the states, Vollers covered domestic terrorism, including articles on the Oklahoma City Bombing, the militia movement,[15] anti-abortion violence, the trial of white supremacist Byron de La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers, which resulted in her book, Ghosts of Mississippi, followed a decade later by Lone Wolf, on the Olympic Park and abortion clinic bomber, Eric Rudolph.[16]

Now based in Montana, she and her husband, documentary photographer, director, and producer William Campbell create news features and documentaries on political, social and environmental issues. Their PBS-ITVS documentary, Wolves in Paradise, was about the human costs and benefits of the reintroduction of wolves in the Yellowstone region.[17][18]

Work with Yeonmi Park

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Vollers co-authored the biography of North Korean defector Yeonmi Park, whose claims about her life as a child in North Korea have been questioned by journalists, professors of Korean studies, and fellow North Korean defectors. The 2015 book titled In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom – written in English and published in the United States – contained a different and more negative account of her life in North Korea than the stories Park had previously told to audiences in South Korea.[19]

Before the book was published, an SBS journalist who had previously worked with Park on a documentary found numerous inconsistencies in Park's stories of life in Korea.[20] Vollers defended Park from these accusations, stating that most of Park's jumbled recollections were due to her not yet being fluent in English, and that she was being targeted by a North Korean government smear campaign.[21] A 2023 article in The Washington Post similarly found inconsistencies in many of Park's stories about life in North Korea.[19]

Works

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  • All In: Billie Jean King, An Autobiography; Knopf, 2021 (collaborator).
  • In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom; by Yeonmi Park with Maryanne Vollers, Penguin Random House, 2015.[22]
  • Money: Master the Game, by Tony Robbins, 2014 (collaborator)
  • My Extraordinary Ordinary Life; by Sissy Spacek with Maryanne Vollers, Hyperion 2012.
  • All That is Bitter and Sweet: A Memoir; by Ashley Judd with Maryanne Vollers, Ballantine, 2011.
  • Lone Wolf: Eric Rudolph: Murder, Myth and the Pursuit of an American Outlaw; by Maryanne Vollers. HarperCollins Publishers, November 2006.)[23]
  • Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Simon & Schuster, 2003, (collaborator).
  • Profiles in Courage for Our Time, edited by Caroline Kennedy, Hyperion Books, 2002; (Contributor).
  • Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole; by Jerri Nielsen with Maryanne Vollers; Talk Miramax, 2001.
  • Ghosts of Mississippi: The Murder of Medgar Evers, the Trials of Byron De La Beckwith, and the Haunting of the New South; by Maryanne Vollers, Little Brown, 1995.

Awards

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  • National Book Award, finalist, nonfiction: Ghosts of Mississippi, 1995
  • Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, finalist, 1995.
  • New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism, finalist, 1996.
  • The Gustavus Meyers Human Rights Award, 1996.

References

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  1. ^ "Contributors". TIME. August 26, 1996. Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
  2. ^ "National Book Awards Finalists Announced". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  3. ^ "Maryanne Vollers". Penguin Random House Higher Education. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  4. ^ "Maryanne Vollers | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  5. ^ Daniel, Douglass K. (April 30, 2012). "Actress Sissy Spacek writes tender, touching book". The Seattle Times. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  6. ^ "All That Is Bitter and Sweet by Ashley Judd, Maryanne Vollers: 9780345523624 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  7. ^ "All In by Billie Jean King, Johnette Howard, Maryanne Vollers: 9781101947333 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  8. ^ Maslin, Janet (November 9, 2006). "A Bomber, but Not Your Usual Suspect". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  9. ^ "Lone Wolf". HarperCollins. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  10. ^ "Maryanne Vollers". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  11. ^ "Contributors: Aug. 26, 1996 - TIME". January 17, 2010. Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  12. ^ Vollers, Maryanne (May 20, 2001). "Was This Soccer Mom A Terrorist?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  13. ^ "Brown University Class of '77". www.hauser.us. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  14. ^ "Vollers, Maryanne 1955– | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  15. ^ VOLLERS, MARYANNE. "The White Woman from Hell | Esquire | JULY 1995". Esquire | The Complete Archive. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  16. ^ Nelson |, Sara. "Probing a Heart of Darkness". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  17. ^ "Wolves in Paradise". KUSM / MontanaPBS. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  18. ^ "ITVS-Wolves in Paradise".
  19. ^ a b Sommer, Will (July 16, 2023). "A North Korean defector captivated U.S. media. Some question her story". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  20. ^ Jolley, Mary Ann (December 10, 2014). "The Strange Tale of Yeonmi Park". The Diplomat. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  21. ^ Vollers, Maryanne (March 15, 2015). "The woman who faces the wrath of North Korea". The Guardian. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  22. ^ "In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, Maryanne Vollers: 9780143109747 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  23. ^ Maslin, Janet (November 9, 2006). "Lone Wolf – Maryanne Vollers: New York Times Book Review". The New York Times. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
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