Mariah Burton Nelson

A former Stanford University and professional basketball player, Mariah Burton Nelson has written seven books for four major publishers -- Harcourt Brace, William Morrow, Random House, and Harper San Francisco -- and hundreds of articles for the Washington Post, the New York Times, Glamour, Newsweek, etc.

She has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, PrimeTime Live, Dateline, Nightline, Donahue, Larry King Live, and myriad other television and radio shows.

REVIEWS, ARE WE WINNING YET? (Random House, 1991)

Publishers Weekly

"…Provocative and informative…

Kirkus Reviews

"A superb book for athletes, for women who function in what still seems to be a man's world, and for the men who work with them."

Booklist

"A stimulating series of essays that touch on virtually all areas of female sports participation. A serious book that raises important issues to which there are no simple answers."

Philadelphia Inquirer

"Writing in a breezy style, without the weight of polemics or preachiness, Nelson has sketched a compelling study of the woman in sports – one that is as important to men as it is to women."

Washington Post

"An enormously empowering book that mothers should pass on to their daughters."

New York Times

"Are We Winning Yet?" finds that while women athletes may still be on the fringe of public consciousness and acceptance, they're drawing nearer."

REVIEWS, THE STRONGER WOMEN GET, THE MORE MEN LOVE FOOTBALL

Robert Lipsyte, New York Times

"Nelson writes with knees and elbows flying. Powerful, provocative, smart, important, touching, fascinating."

Library Journal

"Nelson has hit a home run. When it comes to popular sociology of women’s sports, nobody does it better."

San Francisco Examiner

"Had Backlash author Susan Faludi been an athlete, she might have written this book."

The Women’s Review of Books

"Readable, lively, and witty. Revolutionary. Not only about men’s violence but also about female love, growth, and empowerment through sports."

REVIEWS, THE UNBURDENED HEART

Publishers Weekly

"Thoughtful, persuasive, accomplished, engaging, considered, and eloquent."

New York Times

"Valuable, moving, and practical self-help."

Philadelphia Inquirer

"A brave and wrenching book. …A self-help tome, but reads like a suspense tale."

Washingtonian

Nelson has moved far afield from her identity as a sportswriter with this well-researched, honest, and inspiring book… The victim of sexual abuse by a coach when she was a teenager, she explains that the first key to forgiving is awareness that an offense occurred and had consequences. Each of the other keys—validation, compassion, humility, and self-forgiveness—is likewise grounded in the knowledge that there was reason to be hurt; otherwise, there’d be no reason to forgive. Nelson, a former college and pro athlete, knows something about defeat and victory. Her book gives self-help a good name.

Beliefnet

Nelson, today an accomplished sportswriter, had a highly ambiguous, clearly exploitative relationship with her married 25-year-old athletic coach when she was 14. She was angry at him for two decades, but after a long series of telephone conversations, letter exchanges and in-person meetings with him, she felt herself able to forgive. Are there limits to forgiveness? No, not really, writes Nelson in "The Unburdened Heart." Though she draws on Christian and Buddhist teachings, Nelson's own narrative is the most interesting part of the book; she reports on both sides, so the reader can to some extent decide independently whether "Bruce," the older man, is honest or disingenuous.