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2021 Quill Prose Award Winner
Available June 4, 2024

Queer. Neurotic. Essayist.

I’m a queer Chicago writer. You can read my work in DIAGRAM, Tupelo Quarterly, The Rumpus, or somewhere else.

My debut collection of essays, Carrion, was selected by the wonderful, fiery Kazim Ali as the winner of the Quill Prose Award and is set to release June 4, 2024. My essay, and Melancholia, was selected as a winner of Essay Press's 2015 chapbook contest.

My work is generally lyric and smudges genre distinctions to varying degrees. I write about the body, things that fall out of the sky, and millennial abjection. I delight when those are fascicle.

I like to think about the poetics of identity and semiotics in creative nonfiction. My current project is a work of autotheory that explores the 2001 film, Kairo (Kurosawa), and the uncomfortable relationship between the body and the internet.

But I teach, mostly. Like many, mostly composition. But I shine and my students shine when we discuss Rankine’s Citizen, Carson’s Plainwater, Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Larsen’s Passing.

To Wit: Flash Interviews—Wes Jamison

Me

“Anne Carson. (Could you hear how quickly I said that?)”

Assay Journal

“What writer do you want to be when you grow up?”

  • 2010: BA English, Otterbein University

    2013: MFA Creative Nonfiction, Columbia College Chicago

    2022: PhD Creative Writing

  • 2021: Quill Prose Award, selected by Kazim Ali, Red Hen Press

    2021: Anderson Award in Medieval Studies

    2016: Chapbook Contest, selected by Julie Carr, Essay Press

    2011: Essay Contest Winner, South Loop Review

  • 2022: “Mother,” Gigantic Sequins, vol. 13

    2011: “The Secret Garden,” South Loop Review, vol. 13

  • 2020: Book Award longlist, Tarpaulin Sky Press

    2017: Pushcart Prize nomination, cahoodaloodaling

    2017: Chapbook Contest finalist, Gambling the Aisle

    2016: Open Prose Contest finalist, selected by Maggie Nelson, 1913: A Journal of Forms

    2016: Sixth-Ever Contest finalist, The Cupboard Pamphlet

    2015: Lamar York Prize finalist, Chatahoochee Review

    2014: First Book Prize finalist, selected by Claudia Rankine, 1913: A Journal of Forms

View fullsize Here's a picture of my mom for mother's Day. She's feeding and talking to some ducks and curly-feathered not-ducks down in the bayou. You're welcome.
View fullsize Y'all. I'm making buttons to celebrate the launch of Carrion. Grab them at events or, soon, you can find them on my website. #book #booklaunch #crafts #carrion #birds @redhenpress #buttons
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View fullsize Little #cairn on my walk up to work.
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View fullsize A memory from 11 years ago: CARRION in its natal, not-yet-digivolved formion (i.e. Printed out for thesis submission).
View fullsize CARRION comes out in two months! Here's a story: I worked on Carrion for two years at @columbiachi. It developed accidentally out of my apparent obsession with #crows. Once it became a proper project, I became frustrated and treated the topic as a
View fullsize #AWP24 #photodump. Flying, flying, Totally Nude, art, poke, first signing, crappy coffee, reading, and the last book. Because, y'all: my book SOLD OUT thanks to the wonderful @redhenpress. I am shooketh to my cores. So glad to have met so many wonder
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View fullsize Who still has a copy of 1913: A Journal of Forms #6? Several blogs etc. mention it was published as a .pdf and link to the 1913 website, which has a .pdf image of the contributors page, but not the issue itself. Does THAT exist?
View fullsize A student from years and years and years ago. I guess I'm just very loud about how great I think #jamesbaldwin is
View fullsize I'm going to be at #awp24 so come and see me! I'll be signing copies of my essay collection Thursday, reading with other @redhenpress authors on Friday, and signing more books alongside Jennifer Brice on Saturday! Be on the lookout for more happeni