the author

Personal Bio:

I remember distinctly what sparked my love of books: I was a tot of four, living in a Russian refugee detention camp in the east of Germany. The camp was but a muddy square framed by small wooden cabins, two rooms at the most, hastily put together and icy cold in the winter time. I remember a small bedroom where, each evening, my father tucked me ceremoniously into bed. I dared not move for fear even a single happy sigh would cast a spell on the most beautiful moment of the day: my father walking to the dark armoire in the corner of the room, taking a large key from his pocket, and unlocking the doors. On the top shelf of the armoire was a blue book with the picture of a small angel in a white frock on the cover. My father locked the armoire, sat down on the bed, and began reading. I can’t remember the whole of the story, but it seems that the little angel had gotten into some mischief while on a mission to earth—or rather, what adults would consider mischief—and she had been severely punished by being deprived for a time of her ability to fly, having to live on earth like any ordinary child. It was a very difficult time for that little angel until the use of her wings were finally restored and she could, once again, soar. What fascinated me about the story was not only the angel’s fate, but the many wonderful things the story told that I knew nothing about: homes full of warmth and laughter and soft furniture; foods I had never tasted; parks I had never walked in; toys I didn’t know existed; clothes I had never worn. It all seemed too fantastic, but if it said so in the book, it must be true. Somewhere.

Many years later, many journeys and habitats later, many mischiefs and errors later, much laughter and tears and hard work later, and playing the roles of wife, mother, teacher in between, certainly a thousand books and stories loved and devoured throughout, I received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Someone asked me, at the time, what sparked my interest in Literature, and I remembered instantly these moments—these beloved, sacred moments of my father taking a book with a blue cover off the top shelf of an old armoire and opening up a world I didn't know existed.

It took a good many years even after that degree before I dared write a book of my own. Well, actually, the book began as a screenplay and was rejected five times by various gods, among them the gods at the Nicholl Fellowship of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences before I realized that the screenplay didn’t want to be a screenplay. It wanted to be a novel. The Universe seemed to agree with me. While the writing of the screenplay had been like pulling teeth, the novel, The Good American: A Novel Based on True Events, seemed to write itself, and those who have read the book, tell me that it is the most beautiful and moving story they have ever read. (See a sampling of the reader reviews at the interviews or review links.)

About the Author

Ursula Maria Mandel lives and writes in a house on a hill with a view.. She has previously published essays on Franz Kafka and on the fearless young life of polio victim Misti Washington.

The short story Deader Than a Doornail was recently published at Streetlight, and was broadcast on National Publish Radio, WMRA, on February 1, 2003.

She has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the, University of Colorado at Boulder. ( Dissertation: A Comparative Study of Franz Kafka and Djuna Barnes), and has taught at the University of Colorado, George Washington University, George Mason University, NOVA, and UVA Extension.

She has also published Memories of VMI, Volumes I and II.

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