Katie Wudel

My stories and essays have appeared in McSweeney’s, Prairie Schooner, Tin House, and other publications. A recent writer in residence at Hedgebrook, I’ve taught creative writing at San Francisco’s School of the Arts and the University of Nebraska-Omaha Writer’s Workshop. My story “Tongueless” was listed among Wigleaf’s Top [Very] Short Fictions of 2011, and I was a finalist for the 2012 Summer Literary Seminars Unified Fiction Contest. I confess: I’m a terrible chef, but a sucker for adorable dogs. I also believe Trixie Belden could kick Nancy Drew’s ass, if that sort of thing were possible.

This has been a busy May! Earlier this month, I volunteered with the PEN American Center’s World Voices Festival. I totally rocked a bamboo saw while crafting literary puppets for the opening procession along the Highline and handled tickets for a reading featuring Teju Cole, Jennifer Egan, and more. PEN thanked us with a swank afterparty in the Standard Hotel penthouse, so a pretty sweet deal on all fronts. Hope to volunteer in the future.

Also served on the planning committee for Lit Crawl Brooklyn, which was an absolute blast. Utterly packed events (I attended Tin House and Electric Literature), good vibes from NYC’s literary community, plus another celebratory afterparty at the always fab 61 Local. If you haven’t had the pleasure of mixing booze and books in quite this way before, do check out the offerings this September 15 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

More summer conference news! Last week, I received word that I was awarded the Carlisle Family Scholarship for the Squaw Valley Community of Writers! Looking forward to bunking in Lake Tahoe this July. Was also invited to attend the much-loved Sewanee Writers’ Conference this morning. Feeling very gracious. July looks to be a very warm and writerly month! 

Just received word that I was a finalist for this year’s Summer Literary Seminars Unified Literary Contest. With over 1600 entries, it was their biggest contest yet! Honored to be offered a fellowship.

Interview featuring my thoughts on passive-aggression, flash fiction craft, and crazy neighbors now up on the Prairie Schooner blog! Thanks to Claire Harlan-Orsi for the fun questions. Don’t forget to pick up your copy of the Spring 2012 issue.

My copies of Prairie Schooner’s gorgeous Spring 2012 issue have arrived, featuring cover art by Lori Nix and a story by yours truly. (Title: “Bad Aim”)

California College of the Arts invited me to read in celebration of the MFA in Writing program’s 10th anniversary.

I recently participated in my second Monkeybicycle Lightning Round.

Electric Literature posted about the event, in which I shared the stage with Shelley Jackson (!) and Deb Olin Unferth (!!).”The readers were chosen for their talent, not because they’d voiced any feelings about being underrepresented and/or repressed by The Big Dick.” Cheers to The Night of 20 Women!