Roland Merullo

Roland Merullo is the award-winning author of twenty books of fiction and non-fiction. These range from suspense novels (Fidel's Last Days, A Russian Requiem, Revere Beach Boulevard, The Return) to love stories (A Little Love Story, The Talk-Funny Girl, Leaving Losapas) to golf and travel books (Golfing with God, Passion for Golf, The Italian Summer, Taking the Kids to Italy) to humorous spiritual road trips (Breakfast with Buddha, Lunch with Buddha, Dinner with Buddha, Golfing with God, American Savior.) His work has been translated across the globe, from China to Brazil, from Korea to Croatia and has sold hundreds of thousands of copies to date.

Breakfast with Buddha, a nominee for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, is now in its 20th printing. A 2012 ALEX Award Winner, The Talk-Funny Girl, was named a “Must Read” by the Massachusetts Library Association and the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Publishers Weekly named Vatican Waltz one of the Best Books of 2013 and_ Lunch with Buddha was selected as one of the Best Books that same year by _Kirkus Reviews. Revere Beach Boulevard _was named as one of the “Top 100 Essential Books of New England” by the _Boston Globe. A Little Love Story was chosen as one of “Ten Wonderful Romance Novels” by Good Housekeeping _and _Revere Beach Elegy won the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction.

His latest novel, The Delight of Being Ordinary, to published by Doubleday in April 2017, has already received advanced praise and a Kirkus starred review. Another humorous story decorated with some serious philosophical / spiritual considerations, it features the Pope and Dalai Lama making an unauthorized road trip around Italy in disguise.

Much in demand as a speaker, Merullo has given informal talks as well as commencement and convocation speeches at colleges and universities in New England, California, Florida, North Carolina, Minnesota, Colorado, and Nebraska, as well as at open-minded churches of various denominations and hundreds of libraries, schools, and community organizations.

Merullo was born in Boston and raised in the working-class city of Revere, Massachusetts. He had a scholarship to Exeter Academy, attended Boston University for two years, transferred to Brown and graduated there. While at Brown, Merullo earned a Master's in Russian Studies. He has been a Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia, and worked on cultural exchange exhibits in the former USSR. A former writer in residence at North Shore Community College and Miami Dade Colleges, and professor of Creative Writing at Bennington, Amherst and Lesley Colleges, Merullo's essays have appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times, Outside Magazine, Yankee Magazine, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Magazine, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is a frequent contributor of commentary for National Public Radio affiliates.

Merullo has traveled all across the northern hemisphere and currently lives in Massachusetts with his wife Amanda and their two daughters.