Marie Arana

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Marie Arana (born 1949) is an editor and author.

She was born in Peru, moved to the United States at the age of 9, did her B.A. in Russian at Northwestern University, her M.A. in linguistics at Hong Kong University, a certificate of scholarship at Yale University in China, and began her career in book publishing, where she was vice president and senior editor at Harcourt Brace and Simon & Schuster. She is now editor of "Book World", the book review section of The Washington Post, and is married to Jonathan Yardley, the Post's chief book critic, and has two children, Lalo Walsh and Adam Ward.

Marie Arana is the author of a memoir about a bicultural childhood "American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood" (finalist for the 2001 National Book Award as well as the PEN/Memoir Award); editor of a collection of Washington Post essays about the writer's craft, "The Writing Life" (2002); and the author of "Cellophane" (a satirical novel set in the Peruvian Amazon, published in 2006, and a finalist for the John Sargent Prize). She has written the introductions for many books, among them a National Geographic book of aerial photographs of South America, "Through the Eyes of the Condor."

Arana has served on the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. For many years, she has directed literary events for the Americartes Festivals at the Kennedy Center. She has been a judge for the Pulitzer Prize as well as for the National Book Critics Circle. Her commentary has been published in USA Today, Civilization, Smithsonian magazine, The National Geographic, and numerous other literary publications throughout the Americas.

[edit] Bibliography

• American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood, The Dial Press, 2001, ISBN 0385319622 - a memoir about a bicultural childhood; finalist for the 2001 National Book Award
• The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work: A Collection from the Washington Post Book World, editor, PublicAffairs, 2002, ISBN 1586481495
• Cellophane, The Dial Press, 2006, ISBN 0385336640 - a satirical novel set in the Peruvian Amazon; finalist for the John Sargent Prize^[1]

Lima Nights, The Dial Press, 2009 - a love story set in contemporary Peru

[edit] References

• May WIW Conference Features Washington Post ‘Book World’ Editor Marie Arana, Washington Writer Volume 28, No. 4, April 2003 (Google cached HTML version)
• Marie Arana at Random House
• Contemporary Authors (Biography - Arana, Marie), Thomson Gale, 2006

 Washingtonian article: http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/571.html

[edit] External links

• Employment Testimonials: Marie Arana, The Washington Post
• Sorted And Sort of . . ., Marie Arana and Jonathan Yardley (Staff Writers), The Washington Post, March 23, 2006
• Recent Washington Post articles by Marie Arana
• Washington Post Book World editor steps down: Heir apparent's personal life may complicate matters., Craig Offman, Salon.com, July 15, 1999