Masha Hamilton

Masha Hamilton (born February 1, 1961) is an American journalist and the author of five novels. She founded two world literacy projects, and has worked as head of communications for the US Embassy in Afghanistan and the NGO Concern Worldwide US.

Career
Hamilton worked as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press for five years in the Middle East, where she covered the First Intifada, the peace process, and the partial Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. She spent five years in Moscow, where she was a Los Angeles Times correspondent and reported for NBC/Mutual Radio. She wrote about politics as well as average Russian's life during the collapse of the Soviet Union. She reported from Afghanistan in both 2004 and 2008.

In 2006, she traveled in Kenya to research the novel The Camel Bookmobile (2007), published by HarperCollins. She had previously published the books Staircase of a Thousand Steps (2001), The Distance Between Us (2004), 31 Hours (2009), and What Changes Everything (2013).

World literacy projects
She started two world literacy projects: the Camel Book Drive to help the camel-powered library in Northeast Kenya, begun in 2007, and the Afghan Women's Writing Project, to foster the voices of Afghan women, begun in 2009.

Awards
In 2010, she won the Women’s National Book Association WNBA Award. In 2013, she was received Meritorious and Superior Awards from the State Department. In 2017, she was the John E Nance 2017 Writer-In-Residence at the Thurber House.

Major works

 * Postcard from Moscow, (newspaper column)
 * Staircase of a Thousand Steps, (2001), Penguin Putnam/BlueHen Books
 * The Distance Between Us, (2004) Unbridled Books
 * The Camel Bookmobile, (2007) HarperCollins
 * 31 Hours, (2009) Unbridled Books
 * What Changes Everything, (2013) Unbridled Books