Melissa Bank

Melissa Susan Bank (October 11, 1960 – August 2, 2022) was an American author. She published two books—The Wonder Spot, a volume of short stories, and The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing—and won the 1993 Nelson Algren Award for short fiction. She taught at Stony Brook University.

Early life and education Bank was born in Boston, on October 11, 1960. Her father, Arnold, was a neurologist who died during his late fifties of leukemia, a condition he concealed for almost ten years; her mother, Joan (Levine), worked as a teacher. She then worked in publishing in New York City, and obtained a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Cornell University in 1987. She identified Janet Malcolm as her favorite non-fiction writer.

She also taught in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.

The Girls' Guide to Hunting And Fishing Bank began writing The Girls' Guide to Hunting And Fishing shortly after graduating from Cornell. It ultimately took her twelve years to complete. Newsweek critic Yahlin Chang wrote, "Bank draws exquisite portraits of loneliness, and she can do it in a sentence."

Later works Bank published her second novel, The Wonder Spot, in 2005.

Publications The Wonder Spot (2005) The Worst Thing a Suburban Girl Could Imagine (short story) – 1999 The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing (1999)