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Carmen Maria Machado

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Carmen Maria Machado
Machado in 2017
Machado in 2017
Born (1986-07-03) July 3, 1986 (age 38)
Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationWriter
LanguageEnglish
EducationAmerican University[1]
Iowa Writers' Workshop (MFA)
GenreScience fiction, fantasy, horror
Years active2011–present
Notable worksHer Body and Other Parties (2017)
In the Dream House (2019)
Notable awardsFolio Prize 2021 winner
National Book Award finalist
Spouse
Val Howlett[1]
(separated[2])
Website
carmenmariamachado.com

Carmen Maria Machado (born July 3, 1986) is an American short story author, essayist, and critic best known for Her Body and Other Parties, a 2017 short story collection, and her memoir In the Dream House, which was published in 2019 and won the 2021 Folio Prize.[3] Machado is frequently published in The New Yorker, Granta, Lightspeed, and other publications. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award[4] and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette. Her stories have been reprinted in Year's Best Weird Fiction,[5] Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best Horror of the Year, The New Voices of Fantasy, and Best Women's Erotica.

Early life

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Carmen Maria Machado was born July 3, 1986, in Allentown, Pennsylvania.[6] Machado's paternal grandfather left Santa Clara, Cuba, for the United States when he was 18, gaining U.S. citizenship after serving in the Korean War. He then moved to D.C. and worked at the United States Patent Office, where he met Machado's grandmother, who came over to the U.S. from Austria after World War II.[6]

Machado grew up in a very religious United Methodist household; this upbringing, she says, led to a sense of guilt about her queer sexuality for several years.[7]

Education

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She attended Parkland High School in South Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania,[8] and then American University in Washington, D.C., graduating in 2008.[1][9]

She earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and received fellowships and residencies from the Michener-Copernicus Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the CINTAS Foundation, the Speculative Literature Foundation, the University of Iowa, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts.[10] Machado also attended the Clarion Workshop, where she studied under author Ted Chiang and others.[11]

Career

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Machado worked in the Iowa Writers' Workshop for two years after receiving her MFA there. After a rejection from Starbucks in 2013, she took up work at Lush, a soap store, while she taught writing as an adjunct professor at Rosemont College and other schools in the area. She also did freelance writing while she lived in Pennsylvania.[1]

Machado's short stories, essays, and criticism have been published in a number of magazines including The New Yorker, Granta, The Paris Review, Tin House, Lightspeed, Guernica, AGNI, National Public Radio, Gulf Coast, Los Angeles Review of Books, Strange Horizons,[12] and other publications. Her stories have also been reprinted in anthologies such as Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2017, Year's Best Weird Fiction, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, The Best Horror of the Year, and Best Women's Erotica. Machado's short story "Horror Story," originally published in Granta in 2015, details a lesbian couple's difficulty coping with a haunting in their new house.[13][14]

Machado's fiction has been called "strange and seductive", and it has been said that her "work doesn't just have form, it takes form."[15] Her fiction has been a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette,[16] the Shirley Jackson Award,[17] the Franz Kafka Award in Magic Realism, the storySouth Million Writers Award, and the Calvino Prize from the Creative Writing Program at the University of Louisville. An analysis by io9 indicated that if not for the Sad Puppies ballot manipulation campaign, Machado would have been a finalist for the 2015 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.[18] In 2018, she won the Bard Fiction Prize.[19]

Her horror-inspired short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, was published by Graywolf Press in 2017.[20] It was a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction,[4] won the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award John Leonard Prize,[21] and was shortlisted for the 2018 Dylan Thomas Prize.[22] The collection has been optioned by FX and a television show is in development by Gina Welch.[23]

As of 2018, she is the Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania.[24] Machado is a 2019 recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship.[25] She was a Visiting associate professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in Spring 2021.[26]

Machado was guest editor of The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 edition.[27] Her sci-fi short stories have appeared in volumes including Latinx Rising: An Anthology of Latinx Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Matthew David Goodwin, with an introduction by Frederick Luis Aldama.[28]

Her essay "Both Ways", about the 2009 film Jennifer's Body, is part of the anthology It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, published in October 2022.[29]

Personal life

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Machado is bisexual.[30] Until 2022, she lived in Philadelphia with her then-wife Val Howlett.[1] The two married in 2017 and maintained a non-monogamous relationship, living with their partner Marne Litfin in a throuple.[31] Howlett described the relationships in March 2022, saying: "It's just really nice to not build your whole life around one single person. Everything from... the division of labor to how we have conflict to sharing joyful things. I just really love our lives."[31] Machado and Howlett separated later that year.[2]

Machado now lives in Brooklyn, New York City.[32]

Awards and honors

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Year Title Award Category Result Ref[33][34][35]
2014 "The Husband Stitch" Nebula Award Novelette Shortlisted [36]
Shirley Jackson Award Novelette Shortlisted [37]
2015 Otherwise Award Longlisted [38]
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer Longlisted [39]
2017 Her Body and Other Parties Bisexual Book Award Fiction Won [40]
Kirkus Prize Fiction Shortlisted [40]
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Art Seidenbaum Award Shortlisted [41]
National Book Award Fiction Shortlisted [40]
National Book Critics Circle Award John Leonard Prize Won [40]
Otherwise Award Honor List [42]
Shirley Jackson Award Collection Won [40]
2018 Bard Fiction Prize Won [40]
Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize Fiction Won [43]
Crawford Award Won [40]
Dylan Thomas Prize Shortlisted [41]
Indies Choice Book Awards Adult Debut Won [40]
Lambda Literary Award Lesbian Fiction Won [40]
Locus Award Collection Nominated—4th [44]
PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize Shortlisted [40]
Publishing Triangle Awards Edmund White Award Shortlisted [45]
NAIBA Book of the Year Fiction Won [46]
World Fantasy Award Collection Shortlisted [42]
2019 In the Dream House Bisexual Book Award Biography and Memoir Won [47]
Goodreads Choice Award Memoir & Autobiography Nominated—12th [48]
2020 ALA Over the Rainbow Book List Top 10 [49][50]
Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence Nonfiction Longlisted [51][52]
BookTube Prize Nonfiction Finalist [53]
Goldie Award General Non-Fiction Won [54]
Heartland Booksellers Award Nonfiction Shortlisted [55]
Lambda Literary Award Nonfiction Won [56][57]
Publishing Triangle Awards Judy Grahn Award Won [58]
Reading Women Award Nonfiction Shortlisted [59]
Stonewall Book Award Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award Honor [60]
William Saroyan International Prize for Writing Nonfiction Shortlisted [61]
2021 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Longlisted [62][63]
Rathbones Folio Prize Won [64][65]

Machado was awarded the Richard Yates Short Story Prize in 2011[66] and was named Writer on the Rise by Philadelphia in their Best of Philly awards list.[67]

Published Works

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Memoir

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Collections

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Short stories

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*Also appears in Her Body and Other Parties (2017)

Comics

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  • The Low, Low Woods #1-6 (DC Comics, 2019–2020)
  1. Bottomless (2019)
  2. Heaven on Earth (2020)
  3. The Fruiting Body (2020)
  4. Einstein on the Beach (2020)
  5. The Witch's Tale (2020)
  6. Bells to Rest, Lambs to Slaughter (2020)

Collected hardcover edition published 2020

Poetry

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Essays

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As Editor

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  • PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019 (Catapult, 2019)
  • The Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy 2019 (Mariner Books, 2019)
  • BAX 2020: Best American Experimental Writing (Wesleyan University Press, 2020)
  • Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games (Graywolf Press, 2023)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Shepard, Louisa (November 2, 2017). "Once rejected by Starbucks, writer-in-residence is a National Book Award finalist". Penn Today. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Machado, Carmen Maria (July 19, 2022). "Things I'm Bad At: Residencies". Cup of Stars. Substack.
  3. ^ "Machado wins 2021 Folio Prize". Books+Publishing. March 25, 2021. Archived from the original on March 24, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  4. ^ a b "2017 National Book Award finalists revealed". CBS News. October 4, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  5. ^ "Year's Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 2". Undertow Publications. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
  6. ^ a b "The metafictional, liminal, lyrical ways of writer Carmen Maria Machado" by Sabrina Vourvoulias, AL DÍA News, December 3, 2015.
  7. ^ "Interview with Carmen Maria Machado". Solstice Literary Magazine. Interviewed by Carissa Halston. February 3, 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  8. ^ "Carmen Maria Machado" at Inventaire
  9. ^ McGreevy, Nora (February 11, 2020). "Author Carmen Maria Machado on Her Time in DC and the Great Advice She Gives Young Writers | Washingtonian (DC)". Washingtonian. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  10. ^ Machado, Carmen Maria. "Honors". Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  11. ^ "Her Body and Other Parties: An Interview with Carmen Maria Machado" by Amandine Faucheux, NDR Magazine, May 2015.
  12. ^ Strange Horizons
  13. ^ "Horror Story". Granta. October 30, 2015. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  14. ^ Machado, Carmen Maria (2017). Her Body and Other Parties. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.
  15. ^ Samatar, Sofia (April 26, 2015). "Double Take: On Carmen Maria Machado". The Los Angeles Review of Books.
  16. ^ "2014 Nebula Awards Winners", Locus Magazine, June 6, 2015.
  17. ^ "2017 Shirley Jackson Award Winners", Shirley Jackson Awards website, accessed April 23, 2017.
  18. ^ Liptak, Andrew (August 23, 2015). "This Is What The 2015 Hugo Ballot Should Have Been". io9. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
  19. ^ Relations, Bard Public. "Annual Bard Fiction Prize Is Awarded To Carmen Maria Machado | Bard College Public Relations". www.bard.edu. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  20. ^ "On Carmen Maria Machado's Body Horrors". The+Millions. January 12, 2018. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  21. ^ Maher, John (January 22, 2018). "2017 NBCC Awards Finalists Announced". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
  22. ^ "Dylan Thomas Prize 2018 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. March 28, 2018. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  23. ^ "Carmen Maria Machado's Her Body And Other Parties Adaptation Snatched Up by FX". Jezebel. October 16, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  24. ^ Lemieux, Elizabeth (March 2, 2018). "Carmen Maria Machado: Sitting Down with Penn's Writer–In–Residence". 34th Street. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
  25. ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Carmen Maria Machado". Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  26. ^ "Carmen Maria Machado | Iowa Writers' Workshop | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | The University of Iowa". writersworkshop.uiowa.edu. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  27. ^ Studios, Clockpunk. "Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019". John Joseph Adams. Archived from the original on February 14, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
  28. ^ Latinx rising : an anthology of Latinx science fiction and fantasy. Goodwin, Matthew David,, Aldama, Frederick Luis, 1969-. Columbus. 2020. ISBN 978-0-8142-7799-7. OCLC 1157344767.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  29. ^ Vallese, Joe, ed. (October 4, 2022). It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror. New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY. ISBN 9781952177798.
  30. ^ Machado, Carmen Maria (September 27, 2022). "Carmen Maria Machado on Jennifer's Body". Autostraddle. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
  31. ^ a b Goyanes, Rob (March 17, 2022). "Carmen Maria Machado, Val Howlett and Marne Litfin Are Each Other's Editors". Cultured.
  32. ^ Machado, Carmen Maria. "Biography". Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  33. ^ "Carmen Maria Machado | Author | LibraryThing". LibraryThing.com. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
  34. ^ "Award Bibliography: Carmen Maria Machado". www.isfdb.org. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
  35. ^ "sfadb : Carmen Maria Machado Awards". www.sfadb.com. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
  36. ^ "Carmen Maria Machado". The Nebula Awards. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  37. ^ "Granta Reads: Carmen Maria Machado's 'The Husband Stitch'". Granta. October 31, 2016. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  38. ^ "The Husband Stitch". National Centre for Writing | NCW. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  39. ^ Schnelbach, Leah (October 4, 2017). "Her Body, Her Self: Carmen Maria Machado's Her Body and Other Parties". Reactor. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  40. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Petski, Denise (October 15, 2018). "FX Developing 'Her Body And Other Parties' Anthology Based On Book From Gina Welch & Imagine TV". Deadline. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  41. ^ a b "The BKBF Interview: Carmen Maria Machado". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  42. ^ a b "Carmen Maria Machado: Core of Darkness". locusmag.org. Locus Publications. November 13, 2023. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
  43. ^ "Brooklyn Public Library Announces 2018 Literary Prize Winners". Brooklyn Public Library. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  44. ^ Murnane, Kevin. "The 2018 Locus Awards Highlight The Broad Range Of Science Fiction And Fantasy [Sale Price Update]". Forbes. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  45. ^ "The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction". The Publishing Triangle. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  46. ^ "NAIBA Books of the Year Award". New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  47. ^ "2019 Bisexual Book Awards Winners". Locus Online. June 22, 2020. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  48. ^ "Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best Memoir & Autobiography!". Goodreads. Archived from the original on November 4, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  49. ^ "2020 Over the Rainbow Book List features 70 titles for adult readers". American Library Association. January 28, 2020. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  50. ^ "Over the Rainbow: 2020". Booklist. March 15, 2020. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  51. ^ "2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals Longlist". Locus Online. October 1, 2019. Archived from the original on October 2, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  52. ^ "Longlist | Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence: Longlist 2020". American Library Association. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  53. ^ "2020 Nonfiction". 2024 BOOKTUBE PRIZE. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
  54. ^ "2020 Goldie Awards Winners". Locus Online. July 20, 2020. Archived from the original on April 11, 2024. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  55. ^ "Awards: Heartland Booksellers Finalists". Shelf Awareness. September 8, 2020. Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  56. ^ Aviles, Gwen (June 1, 2021). "Lambda Literary announces 25 winning books for annual Lammy Awards". NBC News. Archived from the original on March 20, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  57. ^ "32nd Annual Lambda Awards Winners". Locus Online. June 1, 2020. Archived from the original on April 18, 2024. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  58. ^ "Awards: Triangle, Wolff Translator's Winners". Shelf Awareness. May 4, 2020. Archived from the original on September 21, 2022. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  59. ^ Reading Women (November 18, 2020). "Announcing Reading Women's 2020 Nonfiction Award Shortlist". Literary Hub. Archived from the original on June 7, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  60. ^ "'How We Fight for Our Lives' and 'Cantoras' win 2020 Stonewall Adult Awards". American Library Association. January 29, 2020. Archived from the original on December 23, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  61. ^ "Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Jennifer Croft awarded the 2020 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing by Stanford Libraries | Libraries". library.stanford.edu. December 9, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
  62. ^ "Announcing the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists". PEN America. December 22, 2020. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  63. ^ "PEN America Literary Awards Longlist". Locus Online. December 23, 2020. Archived from the original on August 4, 2022. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  64. ^ Flood, Alison (March 24, 2021). "Carmen Maria Machado wins Rathbones Folio prize for queer abuse memoir". The Guardian. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  65. ^ "Awards: NBCC and Rathbones Folio Winners; Dylan Thomas and Stella Shortlists". Shelf Awareness. March 26, 2021. Archived from the original on January 30, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  66. ^ "Congratulations Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award finalist!". Bull City Press. October 4, 2017. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  67. ^ "Best of Philly 2018: Media, Politics, and People". Philadelphia Magazine. July 30, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
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