Monica Drake (born 1967 in

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, maki ...

) is an American fiction writer known for her novels, ''Clown Girl'' and ''The Stud Book''. ''Clown Girl'' was a finalist for the 2007

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born ...

Award for the Novel through the

Oregon Book Award The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by Literary Arts to honor the "state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers. ...

s. It was named Best Book of 2007 by

Fight Club ''Fight Club'' is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It is based on the Fight Club (novel), 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. Norton plays the unnamed T ...

author

Chuck Palahniuk Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk (; born February 21, 1962) is an American freelance journalist and novelist who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He has published 19 novels, three nonfiction books, two graphic novels, and two adu ...

in the December 2007 issue of

Playboy Magazine ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. ...

."Slabtown Scribbler Gets Her Bunny Ears"
Minervini, John. Blog: ' 'Willamette Week' '. Published January 14, 2008. Accessed June 10, 2015. Actress and comedian

Kristen Wiig Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Born in Canandaigua, New York, she was raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, New York. She moved to Los Angeles, where she joi ...

optioned the film rights for ''Clown Girl''."Kristen Wiig options 'Clown Girl.'"
Ward, Kate. Published May 7, 2010, at 4:43 pm. Accessed February 16, 2014. ''The Stud Book'' gained attention for its "dead girl shots game" and the author's commentary "about the way the dead bodies of women have become such a popular television trope.""The Rumpus Interview with Monica Drake"
Gay, Roxane. Published October 23, 2013. Accessed June 10, 2015. ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...

'' characterized the novel as "mesmerizing" despite "off-putting" qualities and a slow start."'The Stud Book' review: Despite slow start, mesmerizing observations on life and motherhood.
Schneider, Katie. Published April 6, 2013. Retrieved February 16, 2014. Drake lives in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...

with her daughter. She is among the faculty in the writing program at

Pacific Northwest College of Art The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is an art school of Willamette University and is located in Portland, Oregon. Established in 1909, the art school grants Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and graduate degrees including the Master of Fine ...

and a graduate of the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. ...

's MFA program in creative writing. In 2018, Drake appeared on

Storytellers Telling Stories ''Storytellers Telling Stories'' is an episodic podcast created and hosted by writer and showrunner Jude Brewer, harkening back to the Golden Age of Radio as a "theatre of the mind" experience with writers, actors, and musicians. Consolidated in ...

, reading from her newest book, ''The Folly of Loving Life'', accompanied by singer-songwriter, Katelyn Convery.

References

External links

Author’s Homepage
21st-century American novelists Writers from Detroit 1967 births Living people University of Arizona alumni Writers from Portland, Oregon American women novelists 21st-century American women writers Novelists from Michigan Novelists from Oregon {{Oregon-bio-stub