Join BookBrowse today and get access to free books, our twice monthly digital magazine, and more.

Tessa Fontaine biography

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Tessa Fontaine

Tessa Fontaine

Tessa Fontaine Biography

Tessa Fontaine was raised outside San Francisco, and received her MFA from the University of Alabama. She is currently a doctoral student in creative writing at the University of Utah.

Fontaine is the recipient of the University of Alabama's 2012 graduate departmental awards in fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and the 2013 awards in fiction and nonfiction. She has won the University of Utah's Academic Fellowship and the University of Alabama's National Alumni Fellowship, Boone Fellowship, Truman Capote Award and First-Year Teaching Award, and has recieved awards and fellowships from Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Taft Nicholson Center, Writing by Writers, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and more. She has taught for the New York Times summer journeys, at the Universities of Alabama and Utah, and in prisons in Alabama and Utah.

Fontaine, who also eats fire and charms snakes, among other sideshow feats, spent the 2013 season performing with the last American traveling circus sideshow, the World of Wonders. She lives in South Carolina.

Tessa Fontaine's website

This bio was last updated on 05/01/2018. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Interview

In this video, Tessa Fontaine talks about her life with the last traveling American sideshow, and her book, The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts

Tessa Fontaine's astonishing memoir of pushing past fear, The Electric Woman, follows the author on a life-affirming journey of loss and self-discovery—through her time on the road with the last traveling American sideshow and her relationship with an adventurous, spirited mother.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Tessa Fontaine at BookBrowse
The Electric Woman jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Tessa Fontaine but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Author Image Not Available

    Tim Bauerschmidt

    Tim Bauerschmidt and Ramie Liddle are professional nomads who retired by age fifty to travel full-time in an Airstream travel trailer with Ringo, their Standard Poodle. They have explored every state but Alaska and consider ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Electric Woman

    Try:
    Driving Miss Norma
    by Tim Bauerschmidt

  • Philip Connors

    Philip Connors

    Philip Connors was born in Iowa, grew up on a farm in Minnesota, and studied print journalism at the University of Montana. Beginning in 1999 he worked at the Wall Street Journal, mostly as an editor on the Leisure & Arts ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Electric Woman

    Try:
    Fire Season
    by Philip Connors

We recommend 8 similar authors

View all 8 Read-Alikes

Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Support BookBrowse

Join our inner reading circle, go ad-free and get way more!

Find out more


Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Fruit of the Dead
    Fruit of the Dead
    by Rachel Lyon
    In Rachel Lyon's Fruit of the Dead, Cory Ansel, a directionless high school graduate, has had all ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...
  • Book Jacket
    Flight of the Wild Swan
    by Melissa Pritchard
    Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), known variously as the "Lady with the Lamp" or the...
  • Book Jacket: Says Who?
    Says Who?
    by Anne Curzan
    Ordinarily, upon sitting down to write a review of a guide to English language usage, I'd get myself...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Only the Beautiful
by Susan Meissner
A heartrending story about a young mother’s fight to keep her daughter, and the terrible injustice that tears them apart.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Flower Sisters
    by Michelle Collins Anderson

    From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.

  • Book Jacket

    The Stolen Child
    by Ann Hood

    An unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate.

Who Said...

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

P t T R

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.