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Melissa Bank, author of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, dies aged 61
Melissa Bank, author of The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, has died aged 61 following a battle with lung cancer.
A statement from publisher Penguin said she died on 2nd August in East Hampton, New York.
Her former UK publisher at Viking, Juliet Annan, described her as “an extraordinary writer with incredible powers of observation and empathy for women”.
She told The Bookseller: “Her writing was subtle, it was funny, but her writing was also heart-breaking and could show women’s lives at their most desolate. I was hugely proud to publish The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing in 1999 and The Wonder Spot in 2005 and working with her was a treat.
“She wrote and was published at the height of the ’chick lit’ era — and that was to her detriment, for she was not that kind of a storyteller, but was continually categorised as such, despite her literary fans, who included Nick Hornby, Zadie Smith, Hadley Freeman, Matt Klam and Ruth Ozeki. Her writing will endure because she was a perfectionist, and everything she wrote was of the highest order.”
Her agent, Caspian Dennis, described Bank as "a writer with a distinctive minimalist style and boldly hilarious voice". He said: "She captivated generations of readers with her warmly piercing takes on relationships, family and adulthood."
A number of writers and publishing figures also paid tribute to her on Twitter. Tom Bonnick, editorial director for fiction at HarperCollins Children’s Books, said: “Unbelievably sad to hear about the death of Melissa Bank, author of one of my favourite books of all time, The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing. A bona fide, one of a kind, masterpiece.
“If you are yet to read this, you are in for the biggest treat. It is unbelievably funny, hugely moving, and razor sharp — a perfect book.”
Author Jamie Attenberg said: “RIP to Melissa Bank, who wrote a smart and funny book lots of people loved (and tried to imitate for years), The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing.”
