R É S U M É
Russell Martin’s skills as a communicator in digital media, writing, and film are unparalleled. He is a seasoned administrator as well, and someone whose “people skills” are commensurate with his ability to tell a compelling story with words or images in any medium. He is affable, flexible, energetic, innovative, highly creative, and, says Kirkus Reviews, “first and foremost, Martin is a consummate storyteller.”
He directed, wrote, and produced the highly acclaimed and award-winning documentary Beautiful Faces, filmed at a Mexico City hospital, which premiered in 2012. He is a producer and co-writer of the award-winning documentary film Two Spirits and an award-winning, internationally published author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Sorrow of Archaeology and Beautiful Islands, as well as many nonfiction books.
He has written for Time, the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and National Public Radio. His nonfiction book Beethoven’s Hair, a United States bestseller and a Washington Post Book of the Year, has been published in twenty-one translated editions and is the subject of a Gemini-award-winning film of the same name. His books and screenplays have been optioned by Robert Redford’s Wildwood Enterprises, Dennis Haysbert Productions, The Denver Center Theatre Company, and New World Television.
His highly acclaimed book Picasso’s War has been published in seven international editions; Out of Silence was named by the Bloomsbury Review as one of fifteen best books of its first fifteen years of publication, and A Story That Stands Like A Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West won the Caroline Bancroft History Prize. When he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Colorado College, the citation read, in part, “Mr. Martin offers to general audiences precise and accurate, but highly readable, studies of extraordinarily complex issues. He does more: he sees beyond what is already known; he moves beyond synthesis to new insights. His work is disciplined, analytical, and creative. It is also profoundly humane.”
For two decades, Russell taught an annual course at Colorado College on reading and writing creative nonfiction as a visiting professor of English.
Russell is also a nationally and internationally bestselling ghostwriter who worked for many years in collaboration with distinguished authors to create books that are powerful, persuasive, and critically as well as commercially successful. He is known for his professionalism, collegiality, and unique ability to accurately and engagingly approximate the author’s own voice to tell stories and present information and ideas in highly compelling ways.
Since 2015, Russell has headed Say Yes Quickly Books, a hybrid publishing company that offers a complete range of publishing services—from line-editing, design, production, and distribution to developmental editing, marketing, and media outreach. Books published at Say Yes Quickly Books are indistinguishable from those released by traditional publishers, and the company offers clients constant communication, feedback, and control over every publishing decision.