Melissa Kirsch
 |
Melissa Kirsch (1974- ) an American author who writes predominantly about media, politics, and women’s issues. Her most recent book, The Girl’s Guide to Absolutely Everything, provides advice to women on topics ranging from financial issues to dating. Currently, Kirsch lives in New York City, blogs for the Huffington Post, and writes the “My Secret Library” column for the KGB Bar Lit. In 2004, she, along with poet Avram Kline, founded a mixed media and public art collective in downtown Manhattan. A book of personal essays by Kirsch is forthcoming.
Early life and education
Kirsch completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia where she earned degrees in English and French with a concentration in Modern Studies in 1996. She then completed a Master’s in Creative Writing at New York University in 1998. In her writing career, Kirsch has earned multiple writing awards and several fellowships, including fellowships at the Association d’Art de la Napoule, the Camargo Foundation in France, and the Fundación Valparaíso in Spain. She has also taught creative writing at both Williams and Amherst colleges.
Career
Kirsch’s professional writing career began in 1998 when she was working as a senior producer for Oxygen Media and editing the Girls On website, which was directed toward women in their 20s. Kirsch also wrote the advice column “Ask Princess” for Oxygen Media.
After reviewing endless how-to guides for women in her role as editor, Kirsch decided to write a comprehensive book compiling all of the issues that women face during their post-college years. The initial research for her book began with an email survey to all of the women in her life asking, "What do you know now that you wish you'd known right after college and in your 20s that would have made your life a lot less difficult, spared you heartache, generally made the transition to life on your own a heck of a lot easier?" Four years after posing this question and looking into the topics that women face, Kirsch ended up with over 500 pages of advice for women in The Girl’s Guide.
In 2009, Kirsch was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award for Journalism.[citation needed]
Published works
- The Girl’s Guide to Absolutely Everything (Workman, 2007)
Other works by Kirsch include her poem "Sleep's Underside" in Acquainted with the Night (a collection of poems about insomnia) and various articles, which have been featured in Nerve, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, National Geographic Traveler, New York, and Scientific American.[citation needed]