Marya Hornbacher is the recipient of a host of awards for her books, journalism, essays, and poetry. Shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for her first book, Marya has spent a prolific twenty-odd years writing and teaching across genres. She was recently honored with the Annie Dillard Award in Creative Nonfiction.
Marya published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia in 1998, when she was twenty-three. What started as a crazy idea suggested by a writer friend became the classic book that has been published in sixteen languages, is taught in universities all over the world, and has, according to the thousands of letters Marya has received over the years, changed lives.
Her second book, the acclaimed novel The Center of Winter, has been called "masterful," "gorgeous writing," "a stunning achievement of storytelling," and "compulsive reading." The novel tells the story of a family recovering from a father's suicide in the spare, wintry Minnesota north, and in exploring this seemingly dark landscape, discovers light, redemption, and hope. This book, too, is taught in some of the best writing and literature programs in the United States and Europe.
Marya's third book, Madness: A Bipolar Life, was published to immediate and enormous praise, hitting the New York Times Bestseller List and earning the remark in that publication, “Hornbacher is a virtuoso writer.” Madness is “an intense, beautifully written” book about the difficulties, and promise, of living with mental illness. It has been called "the most visceral, important book on mental illness to be published in years."
Her fourth and fifth books, both published by Hazelden Publishers, took Marya in a new and exciting direction that allowed her to put her experience with recovery to use in the recovery community. Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the Twelve Steps is a practical, funny, user-friendly guide to working the Twelve Steps for people who deal with a dual diagnosis of mental illness and addiction. Waiting: A Nonbeliever’s Higher Poweris a powerful, almost radical exploration of what spirituality can mean to the recovering person who does not believe in God.