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Rebecca McClanahan

Rebecca McClanahan's newest book, In the Key of New York City: A Memoir in Essays, was published in 2020. She is the author of ten previous books, including The Tribal Knot: A Memoir of Family, Community, and a Century of Change and a revised edition of Word Painting: The Fine Art of Writing Descriptively, which has sold nearly 50,000 copies and is used as a text in many writing programs. Her work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Boulevard, The Sun, and in anthologies published by Doubleday, Norton, Putnam, Penguin, Beacon, St. Martin's, and numerous other publishers. 

Recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, the Wood Prize from Poetry, and the Glasgow Award in Nonfiction for The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, she has also received the N.C. Governor's Award for Excellence in Education, a MacDowell Colony fellowship, and four literary fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council, among other honors and awards.

She teaches in the MFA programs of Queens University (Charlotte) and Rainier Writing Workshop (Pacific Lutheran University) and gives readings, talks, and workshops throughout the country.

TO INQUIRE ABOUT READINGS, TALKS, WORKSHOPS, INTERVIEWS OR MEDIA EVENTS, CONTACT REBECCA


AWARDS & HONORS • Nonfiction Literature Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts
• Literature fellowships in nonfiction and poetry, North Carolina Arts Council
• Wood Prize from Poetry magazine
• Work selected for Pushcart Prize anthology
• P.E.N. Syndicated Fiction Award

• Work selected for The Best American Essays and The Best American Essays College Edition; five essays listed as "Notable" in Best American Essay series
• Work selected for The Best American Poetry series
• Glasgow Prize for The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings
• Twice awarded the Carter Prize for the Essay from Shenandoah
• MacDowell Colony Residency
• Bread Loaf Scholarship
• Raab Award in Nonfiction,Santa Barbara Community College

• AWP Award finalist for unpublished manuscript, Coming of (a Certain) Age in New York City
• North Carolina Governor's Award for Excellence in Education
Rebecca McClanahan
rebecca mcclanahan
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