Jay Atkinson

Called the bard of New England toughness by Men's Health magazine, Jay Atkinson has published two novels, a story collection, and five narrative non-fiction books. His latest book, Massacre on the Merrimack: Hannah Duston's Captivity and Revege in Colonial America, received the 2016 Massachusetts Book Award Honors in nonfiction. Among his other works, Legends of Winter Hill spent seven weeks on the Boston Globe bestseller list; his memoir, Ice Time, was a Publishers Weekly Notable Book of the Year and a New England Independent Bookseller's Association bestseller; and his rugby novel Caveman Politics was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and a finalist for the Discover Great New Writers Award. The Wall Street Journal called Atkinson's Memoirs of a Rugby-Playing Man a hymn of praise for the rugby game and an exhilarating book. A former two-sport varsity athlete at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Atkinson teaches writing at Boston University. He studied with Harry Crews for 6 consecutive semesters while in the graduate writing program at University of Florida. Moving across different genres, Atkinson's body of work reflects a keen interest in the power of the landscape.