Askold Melnyczuk is an American writer whose publications include novels, essays, poems, memoir, and translations. Among his works are the novels What Is Told, Ambassador of the Dead, House of Widows, and Smedley's Secret Guide to World Literature. Melnyczuk also founded the journal AGNI and Arrowsmith Press (2006).
Melnyczuk was introduced at the launch for his first novel, What is Told, by poet Seamus Heaney. Published in 1994, it was named a "New York Times Notable Book." Writing in The New York Times Book Review, Alida Becker observed: "To fall in love with Melnyczuk's voice is no trouble at all." Melnyczuk received a Lila Bell Wallace-Reader's Digest Award in Fiction in 1997, as well as the McGinnis Award in Fiction from the Southwest Review in 1991. In 2001 he was awarded the biannual PEN/Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing by the PEN American Center which cited AGNI as "one of America's, and the world's, best literary journals." That same year he was honored by PEN New England with its "Friend to Writers" Award. In 2011, he received the George Garrett (poet) Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature from the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. He has also received grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Stories and essays have both been listed on the Honor Roll of The Best American Short Stories (2001) and The Best American Essays (2008, 2010).
