About the Author

Melany is a second-generation forager who learned from her parents, the late abstract painter, Emily Mason and the late landscape painter, Wolf Kahn. Melany was a professor of film production and documentary short film at NYU before returning to New Hampshire/Vermont. She became a VT volunteer Guardian Ad Litem (court appointed advocate for children), and then established her own 12- year practice as a family court mediator. She is a Board Member on the Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation. She was a six-year Board Member at Hilltop Montessori School, Brattleboro, VT. 
 

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

Melany has written for the Provincetown Independent, co-scripted a Christie's Auction video, and written for NAMA Mycophile Magazine. She has been interviewed by CBS Sunday Morning, Vermont Public Radio, New Hampshire Public Radio, Vermont Commons, and Vermont Digger. Melany’s next project is a collaboration with Ellen Korbonski on their second nature book featuring her daughter Ally. 
 
Mason Goes Mushrooming debuted on October 4, 2022, the 95th birthday of Melany’s father, the OG forager and landscape painter, Wolf Kahn. Mason Goes Mushrooming was selected for inclusion in the children’s book category of the October 2022 Brattleboro Literary Festival and Brooklyn Literary Festival. MGM has been nominated as a 2022 Finalist for Picture Books by Foreword INDIES and as a 2023 Finalist by the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards for Best New Voice: Children’s/Young Adults.