Melissa Bank

Bank began writing The Girls' Guide to Hunting And Fishing shortly after graduating from Cornell. It ultimately took her twelve years to complete.[3] During most of that time, Bank worked as a copywriter, focusing on the novel in her spare time.[3] She was involved in a serious bicycle accident where she was struck by a car in 1994,[1] approximately five years before the book was published.[2] She landed on her head, and even though she was wearing a helmet, she suffered post-concussion syndrome for almost two years. This condition affected her short-term memory and deprived her of the "top 10 to 15% of [her] vocabulary"; she was unable to order information or perform sequential thinking. Bank had to stop writing the book during this period.[3]

Finally published in 1999, The Girls' Guide to Hunting And Fishing was a bestseller in both the United States and the United Kingdom, garnering mostly positive reviews. The novel has been translated into over 30 languages.[5] The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Bank writes like John Cheever, but funnier."[8] Newsweek critic Yahlin Chang wrote, "Bank draws exquisite portraits of loneliness, and she can do it in a sentence."[9][10] Others placed Bank in the school of restraint exemplified by Hemingway and Raymond Carver.[1][3] Stories from this popular book were later adapted into the 2007 romantic comedy film Suburban Girl.[11]

Bank published her second novel, The Wonder Spot, in 2005.[1][2] It took her five years to write the book,[2] which did not fare as well as The Girls' Guide in terms of sales but was regarded by critics as the superior of the two works.[1] She was writing a third book for Viking Press at the time of her death.[1]