About

Until 2018, I was a journalist and award-winning nonfiction author, specializing in the nexus of business and social activism. I’ve been an editor and writer (on staff or long-time freelance) at Fortune, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, and many more publications. My eight nonfiction books include ETHICAL CHIC (Beacon Press), named one of the Best Books of 2012 by Library Journal, and PENSION DUMPING (Bloomberg Press), a ForeWord magazine Book of the Year for 2008.
But I’ve actually been writing fiction since I was four years old. My novel I MEANT TO TELL YOU (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2022) was a finalist for the Sarton Award, the Eric Hoffer Award, and many other honors, and my third novel, HER DAUGHTER, will be published by Black Rose Writing in January 2026.
Even before my debut novel THE HEIRS was published in 2018, I was selected as a participant at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in Vermont.
I also write reviews for the New York Journal of Books, and I’m at work on my next novel at my computer in Brooklyn NY

Featured Work

I Meant to Tell You

2022
I MEANT TO TELL YOU: an award-winning novel by Fran Hawthorne

When Miranda Isaacs’s fiancé, Russ Steinmann, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke about whether Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. But as it turns out, the real threat emerges after the attorney’s office discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping seven years earlier – an arrest she’d never bothered to tell Russ about.
The repercussions of this one secret will not only threaten Miranda's and Russ's relationship; they will also change what Miranda thought she knew about Ronit, Russ, and her own family.

Other Works

  • THE HEIRS

    2018

  • ETHICAL CHIC: The Inside Story of the Companies We Think We Love

    2012

  • THE OVERLOADED LIBERAL: Shopping, Investing, Parenting, and Other Daily Dilemmas in an Age of Political Activism

    2010

  • PENSION DUMPING: The Reasons, the Wreckage, the Stakes for Wall Street

    2008

  • INSIDE THE FDA: The Business and Politics behind the Drugs We Take and the Food We Eat

    2005

  • THE MERCK DRUGGERNAUT

    2003

Awards and Recognition

  • for I MEANT TO TELL YOU: --Sarton Award, finalist --National Indie Excellence Awards, finalist in contemporary novel and women's fiction --International Book Awards, finalist in literary fiction and general fiction --Feathered Quill Book Awards, 2d place, Women's Fiction, and 3d place, Adult Fiction --Chanticleer International Book Award, semi-finalist for ETHICAL CHIC: --Library Journal, Best Books of 2012 (Business) for PENSION DUMPING: --ForeWord Magazine, Book of the Year 2008 (bronze medal, Business & Economics)