Amy Hill Hearth

"We live in a culture that ignores many voices. There are stories waiting to be told, wisdom ready to be shared."
- from the Preface of my book, "STRONG MEDICINE" SPEAKS.

I am a New York Times bestselling author and a Peabody Award-winning writer who specializes in oral histories and biographies. I have been a full-time author of nonfiction books - oral histories and biographies - since 1992. Prior to that, I was a newspaper reporter and editor in Massachusetts, Florida, and New York. My early training and wide-ranging experience as a journalist infuses my work an an author.

My first book, HAVING OUR SAY: THE DELANY SISTERS' FIRST 100 YEARS, is the story of two centenarian sisters living in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. The book was an expansion of an article I wrote for The New York Times. I have always been fascinated by the stories of older people. I had heard about the reclusive sisters, sought them out, and persuaded them to be interviewed, first for the newspaper story and then for the book.

Published in 1993, HAVING OUR SAY was an unexpected blockbuster hit, landing on the New York Times Bestseller lists for 105 weeks. I wrote the book for the sake of history. I had no idea it would be so successful.

The book, an oral history, was adapted to the Broadway stage in 1995 by Emily Mann. In 1999, it was adapted for an award-winning television film produced by Dr. Camille O. Cosby and Judith R. James. I worked as a consultant on both adaptations and productions.

Since the publication of HAVING OUR SAY, I have written six more books, most recently, "STRONG MEDICINE" SPEAKS: A NATIVE AMERICAN ELDER HAS HER SAY, an oral history of an 85-year-old Native American tribal matriarch.

Also in 2008, I worked side-by-side with the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, on her first book, 'KNOW YOUR POWER': A MESSAGE TO AMERICA'S DAUGHTERS, published by Doubleday.