Sutherland, Amy

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Sutherland, Amy

PERSONAL: Married. Education: University of Paris, certificate, 1980; University of Cincinnati, B.A., 1982; Northwestern University, M.S.J., 1987.

ADDRESSES: Home— Boston, MA. Agent— Jane Chelius Literary Agency, 548 2nd St., Brooklyn, NY 11215; fax: 718-499-0714. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Reporter and author. Burlington Free Press, Burlington, VT, arts and entertainment reporter, 1988-92;Portland Press Herald, Portland, ME, arts and features reporter, 1993-2001; Boston University Department of Journalism, Boston, MA, lecturer, 2006—.

AWARDS, HONORS: Thomas A. Gallagher Award for Outstanding Achievement in Article Writing, Iota Sigma Epsilon Writing Contest, 1988; John D. Donoghue Award for Arts Criticism, Vermont Press Association, 1991; Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writer, fall, 2003.

WRITINGS

Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America, Viking (New York, NY), 2003.

Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World’s Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers, Viking (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to numerous newspapers, including Portland Press Herald, Portland, ME;Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Art New England, Artist’s Magazine, Cincinnati Magazine, Cincinnati Post, Cooking Light, DownEast, Family Fun, Ohio Magazine, Restaurant Business News, UVM Quarterly, Vermont Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, and Disney Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS: After graduating from Northwestern University with a graduate degree in journalism, Amy Sutherland worked as a features reporter for a number of New England newspapers. It was while working at the Portland Free Press in Maine that Sutherland first became enamored of cooking, a passion that ultimately translated into a regular column about food. An assignment on the Pillsbury Bake-Off piqued Sutherland’s interest, and eventually lured her into the world of competitive cooking. She commented to Salon.com contributor Rebecca Traister: “I was intrigued that the Bake-Off was still around and still very vibrant in a day and age when more women were working and American cooking was getting so much respect. It was a strange anachronism, this thing that was still kicking.” After a year traveling the cookoff circuit, Sutherland wrote a book on the topic, Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America.A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called the book a “wonderful portrait of a true slice of Americana.”Library Journal contributor Peter Hepburn commented: “The reader will enjoy what amounts to a series of short epics.... An engrossing read.”

Sutherland’s next book focuses on a unique degree-granting program in which students learn to handle, train, and manage animals. She spent a year working with both the trainers and trainees as part of Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training Management Program, an experience culminating in 2006’s Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World’s Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers. Moorpark Acorn Online reporter Sylvie Belmond wrote: “The book reads like a novel, but the story is real and Sutherland sheds light on the unassuming zoo nestled above Moorpark College.” A Publishers Weekly contributor described Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched as “a fascinating study in human as well as animal behavior.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, September 15, 2003, Peter Hepburn, review of Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America, p. 83.

Publishers Weekly, September 15, 2003, review of Cookoff, p. 55; March 13, 2006, review of Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World’s Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers, p. 51.