Amy Hill Hearth

Biography:

Amy Hill Hearth (pronounced "HARTH") is a New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times bestselling author whose work focuses on stories and perspectives from the past that resonate today. Her areas of expertise include the lives and viewpoints of older Americans. In addition to writing eleven books, she has worked as a consultant and advisor on Broadway and for film. 

 

Her awards include the 2019 Inaugural Septima Clark "Women in Literature" Award from the National Council for the Social Studies for her book Streetcare to Justice, and two citations (for Having Our Say and Streetcar to Justice) from the American Library Association for that organization's annual Notable Books list. Additionally, Ms. Hearth was part of the team awarded a Peabody Award in 1999 for her work on the television adaptation of Having Our Say. (See "Awards" on this site.)

 

"Wherever Amy Hill Hearth turns her attention, history comes alive," wrote Peter Golden, author of Nothing Is Forgotten.

 

Her first book, which started as a newspaper story she wrote, was Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, a groundbreaking work of oral history and a New York Times bestseller for 117 weeks. The book was adapted to Broadway and for an award-winning film. Ms. Hearth was an advisor and consultant for historical accuracy and authenticity on both productions (1994-1999).

 

The Delany Sisters, who died in the late 1990s, left Ms. Hearth, their co-author and personal friend, in charge of their legacy. Since then, for more than 25 years, Ms. Hearth has handled rights' inquiries about Having Our Say and answered questions from interviewers and readers from around the world about the Delany Sisters, their impact on American culture, and their place in history. "I'm honored that they wanted me to be the keeper of their stories," she said.

 

Raised in a family whose members included elders who lived into their nineties and beyond, Ms. Hearth developed a lifelong interest in what she calls "elder wisdom." A fascination with centenarians was sparked, especially, when Ms. Hearth, as a college senior, shared an apartment with her paternal grandmother who lived to age 101. 

 

 

Known as an unusually versatile author who writes fiction as well as nonfiction, and books for adults as well as young readers, she has said it's important for authors to "get outside their comfort zone" and try new genres. "I like to challenge myself as a writer," she told an interviewer in 2019. "I think I do my best work when I'm trying something new."

 

Her latest work, Silent Came the Monster, is her first historical fiction thriller. Published in May 2023, the book tells the story of a series of unprecedented shark attacks at the Jersey Shore in 1916 with an emphasis on the way that people and the media of the time responded. The book won an AudioFile magazine Earphones Award. In addition, it was an Audible and Goodreads Summer 2023 pick and was selected as an Audio.com and Crimereads fan favorite.

 

Ms. Hearth's interest in American history was encouraged from childhood by her father, a history buff whose ancestry included Revolutionary War soldiers who fought the British, as well as members of a Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) tribe in New Jersey. While assisting her father in genealogical research, Ms. Hearth met the tribal matriarch of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation and subsequently wrote an oral history, "Strong Medicine" Speaks. In 2010, Ms. Hearth was given the name Smiling Songbird Woman by the matriarch and other tribal leaders. 

 

Ms. Hearth's books have been published by Simon & Schuster, Random House, HarperCollins, Doubleday, Blackstone, and Kodansha, among others. Her books have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Czech, Finnish, and Hungarian. She is represented by William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (formerly, William Morris Agency). 

 

In addition to eight works of nonfiction, she is the author of two works of fiction set in the early 1960s in Naples, Florida, then a sleepy Southern backwater. Known as "the Miss Dreamsville novels," the books have been categorized variously as Southern fiction, feminist novels, humor, satire, and social commentary. Inspired by her late mother-in-law, the novels concern the challenges and escapades of a middle-aged wife and mother of three who has difficulty adjusting to the small town when her family relocates there from Boston.

 

Ms. Hearth's work also includes Streetcar to Justice, the first biography of Elizabeth Jennings (Graham), an early Civil Rights activist in New York City. Ms. Hearth had been researching the subject as a hobby for decades. The book, published in 2018, won the inaugural Septima Clark Book Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, among other awards.

 

She began her career as a newspaper reporter in Florida, Massachusetts, and New York. While in New York, she was a reporter under contract at The New York Times for three years. It was while working as a Times reporter that her career pivoted to book author when she followed several leads and located a reclusive and then-unknown pair of centenarian sisters living quietly on a deadend street in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. The daughters of a man born into slavery in the American South, Sadie and Bessie Delany were groundbreaking career women who had lived together all of their lives. As centenarians, they still lived independently, and, as Ms. Hearth recalled, they were "brilliant, funny, and fascinating." She wrote a feature story about them, published in the Times on Sunday, Sept. 22, 1991.

 

The response toMs. Hearth's newspaper story was unbridled enthusiasm. Among those who read the story was a book publisher in New York who contacted Ms. Hearth and asked if she would be interested in writing a full-length book on the sisters. Ms. Hearth and the sisters agreed to go ahead with the project. For almost two years, Ms. Hearth interviewed them at their home to gather the material and write the book, which the they decided to call Having Our Say. Published in 1993, the book was a surprise and huge bestseller. It remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 117 weeks. 

 

In 1995, the book was adapted for Broadway by the playwright Emily Mann, with Ms. Hearth as consultant and advisor to the producers. The play earned three Tony Award nominations including Best Play. The play enjoyed a very successful run, with 317 performances (source: Broadway World) at Broadway's famed Booth Theater beginning in April 1995. 

 

In 1999, the book was adapted for a telefilm directed by Academy Award-winning director Lynne Littman. Ms. Hearth was again a consultant and advisor to the producers. For her contribution to the film, Ms. Hearth received a Peabody Award, as did the producers.

 

When Ms. Hearth first heard about the mysterious Delany Sisters in 1991, it was her love of history and older people that sparked her interest in locating them and asking for an interview. The interview almost didn't happen, however, as Ms. Hearth told The New York Times in a story published April 2, 1995:

 

"They didn't think they were important enough to be in The New York Times. I had to convince them and gave this little impromptu speech - that I thought it was very important that people from their generation be represented, especially Black women who hadn't had much opportunity. I guess my enthusiasm rubbed off."

 

The sisters loved to tell visitors that they had been "discovered" by Ms. Hearth and that it was quite an exciting surprise to become famous at the ages of 100 and 102. They often said that meeting Ms. Hearth had given them a renewed sense of purpose. 

  

Born in Pittsfield, Mass. on April 10, 1958, Ms. Hearth is the youngest of four children. She was raised in Pittsfield; Niskayuna, N.Y.; Columbia, S.C.; and Westchester County, N.Y. She attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, then transferred to the University of Tampa, Fla. where she earned a B.A. in Writing/English in 1982. She lives at the New Jersey seashore with her husband and their two rescue dogs, a Boston Terrier, Iris, and a mixed-breed puppy named Oliver Twist.

 

 

BROADWAY:

Advisor/Consultant to the Producers, theatrical adaptation of Having Our Say, 1994-1995

FILM:

Advisor/Consultant to the Producers, film adaptation of Having Our Say, 1995-1999

 

PRINT MAGAZINES include:

Smithsonian magazine, "Bessie and Sadie: the Delany Sisters Relive a Century"

American Heritage magazine article on the Delany Sisters

Publisher's Weekly magazine, "You Can Fool Mother Nature," essay

 

ONLINE MAGAZINES include:

 

"Having Their Say: Strong Voices from the Marginalized Majority," NWSAction, the online magazine of the National Women's Studies Association

 

"'Strong Medicine' Speaks," Smithsonian.com

 

 

LITERARY MAGAZINE:

"Searching for Abraham," Tampa Review, Volume 23

 

ACADEMIC (PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE WITHIN EDITED VOLUME):

"The Delany Sisters: 'We Are North Carolinians,' " article included in edited volume North Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume II, (July 1, 2015) part of a series published by the University of Georgia Press called, "Southern Women: Their Lives and Times"

 

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS include:

"You Only Need One," ASJA Monthly, magazine of the American Society of Journalists & Authors

Writer for a national nonprofit organization, anonymously and as needed.

 

Founding President, Board of Directors, Native American Advancement Corp., 2010-2013

Founding Trustee, Board of Directors, New Jersey Center for the Book/Library of Congress, 2002-2003

Inaugural event with author Michael Connelly, University of Tampa's Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, 2012

With Tribal Council approval, designed and taught "The Wisdom Project: Strengthening the Bonds between Youth and Elders through Oral History" for the youth and elders of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation at their private retreat, Cumberland County, New Jersey, Summer 2007.

 

 

University of Tampa: Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing guest lectures

 

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale: Anthropology lectures

 

Kansas University: Journalism, Black History lectures

 

College of New Rochelle: Annual Women's History Month lecture

  

Cumberland County (NJ) College: Annual author visit and journalism lectures

 

 

Washington D.C.

 

New Rochelle, New York

 

Columbia, South Carolina

 

Cumberland County, New Jersey