Skip to main content

Masha Hamilton

Biography

Masha Hamilton

Masha Hamilton is the author of five acclaimed novels, most recently WHAT CHANGES EVERYTHING, which the Washington Post praised for its "elegantly wrought prose (which) conveys terror as well as tenderness" and 31 HOURS, which the Washington Post called one of the best novels of 2009. In October 2013, she finished 16 months working in Afghanistan as Director of Communications and Public Diplomacy at the US Embassy.

She is currently working as Communications Director for Concern Worldwide. She also founded two world literacy projects, the Camel Book Drive and the Afghan Women's Writing Project. She is the winner of the 2010 Women's National Book Association award, presented "to a living American woman who derives part or all of her income from books and allied arts, and who has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation."

She began her career as a fulltime journalist, working in Maine, Indiana and New York City before being sent by the Associated Press to the Middle East, where she was news editor for five years, including the period of the first intefadeh, and then moving to Moscow, where she worked for five years during the collapse of Communism, reporting for the Los Angeles Times and NBC-Mutual Radio and writing a monthly column, "Postcards from Moscow." She also reported from Kenya in 2006, and from Afghanistan in 2004 and 2008.

Masha Hamilton

Books by Masha Hamilton

by Masha Hamilton - Fiction

WHAT CHANGES EVERYTHING is the story of Clarissa, who, in a gamble to save her kidnapped husband’s life, makes the best decisions she can, boldly rejecting the advice of U.S. authorities. It is also the story of Stela, who owns a used bookstore and writes letter after letter in hopes of comprehending the loss of a son on an Afghan battlefield. And it's the stories of Mandy, the mother of a gravely wounded soldier; Danil, an angry street artist; and Todd, a career aid worker who for a moment let down his guard in a Kabul marketplace.

by Masha Hamilton - Fiction, Thriller

Jonas is in a safe-house beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. There, he ponders his newfound faith and his specialized training, believing he can change the world. Over the next 31 hours, he will cleanse himself in preparation for the violence he means to inflict upon the city's crowded subways. Carried by Masha Hamilton's powerful prose, 31 HOURS is a story about the frantic hope of those who can save Jonas and countless others --- if only they can reach him in time.