About…
Melodie Winawer is the author of The Scribe of Siena, a medieval Italian historical novel that connects past and present, while exploring the mystery of Siena’s devastation by the Plague. Her current novel-in-progress is set in late Byzantine Greece, and she’s both troubled and intrigued by the fact that the periods she has devoted herself to exploring through fiction (medieval and Byzantine) are both often used as insults.
Melodie is a physician-scientist and associate professor of neurology at Columbia University, with degrees in biological psychology, medicine, and epidemiology. She has published over fifty nonfiction articles and book chapters. The most common question she is asked in book talks is “How did you find the time to write a novel?” Writing during her three-hour daily subway commute certainly helped, and she even thanked the Metropolitan Transit Authority in her acknowledgments. But the real answer is not about public transportation. She explains: “I love what I do. There are many times when I feel like it’s actually impossible and I should just give up. But my enthusiasm keeps me going even when it seems impossible.” Melodie lives with her spouse and their three children in Brooklyn, New York.
