About the Author

Melany Kahn is a second-generation mushroom hunter who learned how to forage from her parents, the late abstract painter, Emily Mason and the late landscape painter, Wolf Kahn. Melany was a professor of film production at NYU before returning to New Hampshire/Vermont. She has been a VT volunteer Guardian Ad Litem (court appointed advocate for children) and was a court appointed Family Mediator for many years.  She is a Board Member on the Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation, and served on the Board of Hilltop Montessori School, Brattleboro, VT. Since 2002 she has led school children, mushroom clubs, and nature center groups on woodland walks to gather and identify edible mushrooms. Melany teaches the culinary aspects of fungi through recipes, cooking demonstrations, and tastings.

Melany was a TEDx speaker at the Boston Planetary Stewardship Event, speaking on the importance of foraging as a way to reconnect to nature, “You’re never too young to learn or too old to start foraging.” 

She is a member of the Education Committee for the North American Mycological Association Board (NAMA), and a Board Member of the Monadnock Mushroomers Unlimited, her local NH mushroom club. Melany attended Wesleyan University, (BA, English/Creative Writing). She holds a Masters in Social Work from Boston College, and an MFA in Film from The Tisch School at NYU where she met her illustration collaborator, Ellen Korbonski. 

Melany and her husband Bo have four children (for Mel, two bio and two bonus) who all grew up foraging edible mushrooms. Mason Goes Mushrooming is her first book. Her son Mason is now attending college in Colorado where he continues his love of mushrooming.