Ellen Meeropol holds an MFA from Stonecoast,
the University of Southern Maine. Her
stories have appeared in numerous
magazines. She left her pediatric nursing practice to
become publicist and book group coordinator for the Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, Mass. She is a founding member of the Rosenberg Fund for Children. Drawing from her twin passions for medicine and social
justice activism, Meeropol's debut novel, House Arrest (Red Hen Press, February 2011), explores
characters at the intersection of political turmoil, ethical dilemmas and
family life. She lives with her husband, Robby, in western Massachusetts.
On your nightstand now:
How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu, Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt, an ARC of Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin, The Lover of a Subversive Is Also a Subversive by Martín Espada, and Quiet Americans by Erika Dreifus--I've already read it, but it's so gorgeous I want to read it again more slowly, to savor.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Louisa May Alcott's Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom--always read together and many times.
Your top five authors:
They keep changing, but some enduring favorites over many years include Andrea Barrett, Paule Marshall, Laura Z. Hobson, Rosellen Brown, Gillian Slovo.
Book you've faked reading:
Moby Dick. I don't care what it's a metaphor for, the whaling made my eyes glaze over.
Book you're an
evangelist for:
Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I don't think I've ever bought a book for the cover. I buy for the author, the first page or a recommendation from someone I trust.
Book that changed your life:
Man's Fate by André Malraux. I was in high school and it was the first time I understood that a book could combine complicated political ideas and a page-turner story.
Book that made you want to be a writer:
The Bone People by Keri Hulme.
Book that you wish you had written:
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels.
Favorite line from a book:
"I rode to earth on the backside of a comet"--from Truth by Jacqueline Sheehan.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler.