Deborah Fallows

Deborah Fallows is an American writer and linguist. She is a fellow at the New America Foundation,^[1][2] and was assistant dean in languages and linguistics at Georgetown University.

Deborah Fallows
Fallows in 2016
Occupation	Writer, linguist
Alma mater	Harvard University University of Texas
Spouse	James Fallows
Children	2

Early life and education

Fallows grew up in both Minneapolis, Minnesota and Vermilion, Ohio.^[3]

She graduated with a B.A. from Harvard University and received a Ph.D. in theoretical linguistics from the University of Texas.^[3]

Career

Fallows was the assistant dean of languages and linguistics at Georgetown University. She chose to be a stay at home mother after the birth of her second son. Fallows wrote of her experiences in her first book, A Mother's Work (1985).^[4]

From 2012 to 2017, Fallows and her husband, James Fallows, flew their single-engine plane across America to visit small towns, which was the basis of their latest book, Our Towns (2018).^[5] The book was made into an HBO documentary film in 2021.^[6]

Fallows and her husband started the Our Towns Civic Foundation in 2021.^[7]

Personal life

With James Fallows she has two sons and five grandchildren.^[3]

Selected works

• Fallows, Deborah (1985). A Mother's Work. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-395-36218-1.
• Fallows, Deborah (2010). Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons In Life, Love, And Language. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 978-0-8027-7913-7.^[8]
• Fallows, James M.; Fallows, Deborah (2018). Our Towns: A 100,000-mile Journey Into the Heart of America. Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-1-101-87184-3.^[5]