About ashley shelby

 

Ashley Shelby is an editor and writer,  whose first book, RED RIVER RISING: THE ANATOMY OF A FLOOD AND THE SURVIVAL OF AN AMERICAN CITY (Borealis Books, 2004) was praised by Salon, the A.P., Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and other publications. Her journalism has appeared in The Nation, Sierra, E: The Environmental Magazine, alternet.org, Minnesota Monthly, Gastronomica, and other outlets. Her op/eds have appeared in the pages of the Newark Star-Ledger and Minneapolis Star-Tribune. In 2002, Shelby was awarded the William Faulkner Award for Short Fiction, and her short stories have been published in numerous literary journals across the country.

She received an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University’s School of the Arts in 2002, where she was awarded two fellowships. Founder and former co-director of the KGB Bar Nonfiction Reading Series, she has been an expert source for magazine articles on corporate misdeeds, the Exxon Valdez damages case, the performance of FEMA in New Orleans, the sociology of disaster and the politics of recovery, and other topics she’s covered as a journalist.

As an Associate Editor  with Jeremy P. Tarcher, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., Shelby acquired and edited social and political issue titles, including the New York Times bestseller THE UNITED STATES OF WAL-MART; BUDDHA’S WARRIORS: THE STORY OF THE CIA-BACKED TIBETAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS, THE CHINESE INVASION, AND THE ULTIMATE FALL OF TIBET; FAT: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF AN OBSESSION; PERSIAN GIRLS by Nahid Rachlin, and SAVING GENERAL WASHINGTON by J.R. Norton among others.

Shelby currently edits for various Twin Cities publishing houses on a freelance basis and will launch Mill City Writers Workshops in Spring 2008.