Amy Hill Hearth

Amy Hill Hearth (pronounced "Harth", born April 10, 1958) is an American journalist and author who focuses on uniquely American stories and perspectives from the past. She is the author or co-author of eleven books, beginning in 1993 with the oral history Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, a New York Times bestseller for 117 weeks, according to its archives. The book was adapted for Broadway in 1995 and for a film in 1999.

Departing from her non-fiction work, Hearth wrote her first novel, Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society, in 2011. It was published on October 2, 2012, followed by a sequel, Miss Dreamsville and the Lost Heiress of Collier County, published September 8, 2015.

Hearth's tenth book, published January 2, 2018, is Streetcar to Justice: How Elizabeth Jennings Won the Right to Ride in New York. Written for middle-grade to adult readers, and published by HarperCollins/Greenwillow Books, the book is the first biography of civil rights pioneer Elizabeth Jennings Graham.

Hearth's most recent work is her first historical thriller, Silent Came the Monster: A Novel of the 1916 Jersey Shore Shark Attacks, published May 16, 2023.

Life and career

Amy Hill Hearth was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on April 10, 1958. Her family relocated several times during her childhood. She spent her formative years in Columbia, South Carolina, and her young adult years in Florida. She has lived, also, in Niskayuna, Hartsdale, and Ossining, N.Y. She and author Michael Connelly appeared together at what was billed by the university as its "Official Opening Reading" of the university's newly launched Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program.

In an interview in the October–November 2007 issue of Book Women magazine, Hearth said that her interest in telling people's stories was the reason she tracked down the reclusive Delany sisters and asked for an interview. When she finally met them, they were reluctant to be interviewed. In a New York Times story published on April 2, 1995, she recalled: They didn't think they were important enough. 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. It became a New York Times Bestseller for 117 weeks and was also on the bestseller lists of The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly.

The Dallas Morning News, in its review of Having Our Say, wrote that Hearth: "worked carefully to preserve the speech patterns and personalities of each sister in the text so the stories unfold as complementary harmonies of the same melody.

With Hearth's contributions—she was credited as an advisor and production consultant—the books were adapted to the Broadway stage in 1995 and for film in 1999. The film version features the actress Amy Madigan playing the role of Hearth.

Hearth was one of two authors whose work was the subject of extensive analysis in the academic book Women Co-Authors. Author Holly A. Larid notes that the tone of Having Our Say is set when "Hearth writes in her preface, 'Their story, as the Delany sisters like to say, is not meant as "black" history or "women's" history but American history.'"

However, Hearth's oral history books also feature passages written in her own voice that are intended to provide historical and cultural context. A Kirkus Reviews review on December 15, 2007, of ′Strong Medicine′ Speaks referred specifically to these contextual passages written by Hearth: "As Hearth describes it, life [among the Native Americans] in Bridgeton, N.J., seems reminiscent of the rural idyll Thornton Wilder painted in Our Town."

An essay by Hearth on the Delany Sisters was commissioned for inclusion in the anthology, North Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times (Fall 2012, University of Georgia Press).

Her first work of fiction, Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society, was published by Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, in October 2012. Its sequel, Miss Dreamsville and the Lost Heiress of Collier County followed in September 2015. The books are loosely based on Hearth's late mother-in-law and her difficulties fitting in and adapting to Naples, Fla., then a sleepy Southern backwater, when the family moved from Boston in 1962. Both novels were translated into multiple languages.

Awards and honors Hearth, along with the producers, won a Peabody Award for "Significant and Meritorious Achievement in Broadcasting and Cable" for Having Our Say, the film adaptation of her book. Hearth, who was the consultant and advisor for historical accuracy on the film, received an individualized Peabody Award with her name and year.

Two of Hearth's books have been selected as "Notable Books" by the American Library Association: Having Our Say (adult category) and Streetcar to Justice (children's category). Having Our Say was selected as a 1994 Notable Book. Streetcar to Justice was selected as a 2019 Notable Children's Book.

In 1993, Having Our Say received an NAACP Image Award Nomination for Literature.

Hearth won the Inaugural Septima Clark "Women in Literature" Award in 2019 from the National Council for the Social Studies for her book, Streetcar to Justice. The annual award recognizes a "notable, high-quality trade book that centers on the challenges and accomplishments of women, both in the United States and internationally."

Having Our Say was selected for "One Book, One City" celebrations (citywide book reads) in numerous cities, including Washington, D.C., New Rochelle, N.Y., Columbia, South Carolina and Lawrence, Kansas. Strong Medicine Speaks: A Native American Elder Has Her Say was selected for a Cumberland County, New Jersey group read.

Four of Hearth's books have been selected by New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age." They are Having Our Say, The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom, On My Own, and In a World Gone Mad.

For Having Our Say, Hearth and the Delany Sisters won an "ABBY" Honor Book Award from the American Booksellers Association in 1994.

For the Broadway adaptation of Having Our Say, Hearth was part of the production team that was nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Play, in 1995. The adaptation was written by Emily Mann. Hearth was a consultant and advisor whose role was to ensure the historical accuracy of the production.

Hearth and the Delany Sisters won a Christopher Award for Literature (1993) for Having Our Say. Six years later, the movie adaptation of the book won a Christopher Award for Film (1999). Hearth was a consultant and advisor on the film production.

Hearth received a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection Award in 2018 for her book, Streetcar to Justice.

In 1993, Hearth received the Gwen and C. Dale White Award "for introducing the Delany Sisters to a world audience" from the New York Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action.