Shorter Bio in case you need it for a thing:
Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here, as well as two forthcoming novels. She has worked as an editor at Medium, JSTOR, Conde Nast, and other organizations, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Gotham Writers Workshops, Catapult, Story Studio Chicago, The Resort LIC, and the Yale Writers' Workshop. Amy's work has appeared in many publications including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Coastal Living. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children. You can find her at amyshearnwrites.com or @amyshearn.
Longer Bio in case you are curious:
Amy Shearn was born in Evanston, Illinois, and started writing as soon as she could hold a pencil. She lived in New Mexico, Chicago, and Iowa, before receiving her MFA from the University of Minnesota. Then she moved to New York City, where she has lived since 2005. Amy has worked as a ghost writer and editor, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Gotham Writers Workshops, Catapult, Story Studio Chicago, The Resort LIC, and the Yale Writers' Workshop.
Amy's first novel, How Far Is the Ocean from Here, was published by Crown Books in 2008. Charles Baxter called it "a hugely auspicious debut." It was highlighted as a notable debut by Poets & Writers and a hot summer read by the Chicago Tribune. Her second novel, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, was published by Touchstone Books in 2013, and was a selection of Target's Discover New Writers program and a Hudson News Summer Reads pick. It was also published in the UK by Pan Macmillan and made into an audiobook by Blackstone Audio. Her third novel, a ghost story called Unseen City, was published by Red Hen Press in 2020. Unseen City was made into an audiobook by Dreamscape Media, chosen as The Nervous Breakdown's September Book Club pick, and won the 2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards’ Gold Medal in Literary Fiction. Amy's novels have been highlighted byThe Atlantic, NPR, the New York Times, and other outlets.
Amy's other writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Coastal Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Parents Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Literary Hub, Catapult, The Millions, The Rumpus, Poets & Writers, The L Magazine, Opium, Five Chapters, and elsewhere, including five anthologies. In 2015, she worked with Anchor + Plume Press to publish a posthumously-discovered novella written by her grandmother, Frances Schutze, called The Little Bastard. Amy's short story "Some Fun" was a finalist for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and received an honorable mention for the CRAFT Short Fiction Prize; her story "The Rut" was a runner-up for the Joyland Magazine Open Borders Prize; and her story "2025" was a finalist for The Best Small Fictions 2016.
Amy received a Promise Award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and has been awarded residencies at Byrdcliffe, SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Unruly Retreat, The Cabins, and the self-directed Artist Residency in Motherhood. She has also hosted and curated many literary events in New York City, including a reading series called Lit at Lark and an author talk series, Bookish, at the Brooklyn Public Library, and was formerly the New York fiction editor at Joyland Magazine. Most recently, Amy was senior manager of creator support at Medium, where she edited Human Parts and Creators Hub.
Amy lives in Brooklyn with her daughter and son.
Photo Credits: Sylvie Rosokoff