Amina Gautier is an American writer and academic. She is the author of four short story collections, many individual stories, as well as works of literary criticism.

Early life and education

Gautier was born and raised in New York. After participating in

Prep for Prep Prep for Prep is a leadership development and gifted education program dedicated to expanding educational access to students of color. The organization's programs are targeted toward high achieving New York City minority students and helps with ...

, she attended the Nightingale Bamford School before graduating from

Northfield Mount Hermon Northfield Mount Hermon School (abbreviated as NMH), is a co-educational college-preparatory school in Gill, Massachusetts. It educates boarding and day students in grades 9–12, as well as post-graduate students. It is a member of the Eight S ...

. She then attended

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

, where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

. She continued her education at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, where she earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in English literature. She held a Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, a Fontaine Fellowship at

University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences The University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences (also known as SAS) is the academic institution encompassing the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Formerly known as the Faculty of Ar ...

, a Mitchem Dissertation Fellowship at

Marquette University Marquette University () is a Private university, private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was established as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, by John Henni, the first Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Ar ...

, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the

Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis is home to the College of Arts and Sciences and corresponding graduate programs across its many departments. The current Dean of the Faculty is Feng Sheng Hu, the Lucille P. Markey Distingui ...

Career

Gautier is a scholar of 19th century American literature. She has written criticism of the 19th-century American authors Charles W. Chesnutt,

Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...

, Elleanor Eldridge,

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (né Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associat ...

Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and wrote the popular novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (185 ...

, and

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

. Her critical essays and reviews have appeared in ''

African American Review ''African American Review'' is a scholarly aggregation of essays on African-American literature, theatre, film, the visual arts, and culture; interviews; poetry; fiction; and book reviews. It is the official publication of the Modern Language Ass ...

'', ''

Belles Lettres () is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pej ...

'', ''

Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin language, Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan language, Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. H ...

'', ''

Journal of American History ''The Journal of American History'' is the quarterly official academic journal of the Organization of American Historians. It covers the field of American history and was established in 1914 as the ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', the o ...

'', '' Libraries and Culture'', ''Nineteenth Century Contexts'' and ''Whitman Noir''. She has received fellowships from the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA), the Social Science Research Council and the

Woodrow Wilson Foundation The Woodrow Wilson Foundation was an educational non-profit created in 1921, organized under the laws of New York, for the "perpetuation of Wilson's ideals" via periodic grants to worthy groups and individuals. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the chai ...

Writing

Gautier has published more than 85 short stories. Her fiction has appeared in a wide variety of magazines and story collections, and some of her stories have been reprinted in anthologies.

Teaching

Gautier has taught at the

Saint Joseph's University Saint Joseph's University (SJU or St. Joe's) is a Private university, private Jesuits, Jesuit university in Philadelphia, Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The university was founded by the Jesuits, Society of J ...

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

, and

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...

. In fall 2014, she joined the faculty in the MFA program at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

Honors

Gautier has been the recipient of the Crazyhorse Prize, the Danahy Fiction Prize, the Jack Dyer Prize, the William Richey Prize, the Schlafly Microfiction Award and the Lamar York Prize in Fiction. * 2011:

Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction is an annual prize awarded by the University of Georgia Press in to a North American writer in a blind-judging contest for a collection of English language short stories. The collection is subsequently ...

* 2013:

Prairie Schooner ''Prairie Schooner'' is a literary magazine published quarterly at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with the cooperation of UNL's English Department and the University of Nebraska Press. It is based in Lincoln, Nebraska and was first publi ...

Book Prize for ''Now We Will Be Happy''"Prairie Schooner Book Prize past winners: Now We Will Be Happy"
''Prairie Schooner''

"Now We Will Be Happy"
''Publishers Weekly''.

"Jaquira Díaz interviews Amina Gautier"
''Los Angeles Review of Books'', November 25, 2015

"NOW WE WILL BE HAPPY by Amina Gautier"
''Kirkus Reviews'', September 16, 2014 * 2018: PEN/Malamud Award

Works

* ''At-Risk''.

University of Georgia Press The University of Georgia Press or UGA Press is the university press of the University of Georgia, a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia. It is the oldest and largest publishing house in Georgia and a me ...

, 2011. * ''Now We Will Be Happy''.

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press (UNP) was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the University of Ne ...

, 2014. * ''The Loss of All Lost Things''. Elixir Press, 2016. * ''The Best That You Can Do''.

Soft Skull Press Counterpoint LLC was a publishing company that Perseus Books Group launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Shoemaker & Hoard, and Soft Skull Press. The company published books under b ...

, 2024.

References

External links

University of Miami faculty page

Interview with Gautier, Derek Alger, ''pif Magazine'' (2012)

Interview with Gautier, Julia Brown, ''Mosaic Magazine'' (2016)

Interview with Gautier, Claire Martin, ''Hair Trigger'' (2017)

Interview with Gautier, Jennifer Maritza McCauley, ''Fiction Writers Review'' (2018)

Interview with Gautier, Bret Meier, ''Pleiades'' (2019)

Interview with Gautier, ''Arts and Letters'', NPR (2020)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gautier, Amina Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American short story writers American literary critics American women literary critics Delta Sigma Theta members Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction winners Writers from Chicago Writers from Florida Writers from New York City Stanford University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni DePaul University faculty Marquette University faculty University of Miami faculty University of Pennsylvania faculty Washington University in St. Louis faculty Northfield Mount Hermon School alumni 21st-century American non-fiction writers Nightingale-Bamford School alumni Washington University in St. Louis fellows