Monica Drake is an American fiction writer known for her novels, ''Clown Girl'' and ''The Stud Book'' and her collection of linked stories, ''The Folly of Loving Life''. Her essays and short work have appeared in ''The Paris Review'', ''New York Times "Modern Love" column, ''The Rumpus,'' ''Longreads,'' ''Oregon Humanities Magazine'' and other publications. She is also the author of a significant essay, published anonymously on Longreads, which went viral and inspired energized cultural conversations about divorce court, marriage and life as a woman author. ''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 Counterculture of the 1960s, countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies o ...

Award for the Novel through the

Oregon Book Award The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by the Portland, Oregon, United States–based organization Literary Arts, Inc. to honor the "state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literatur ...

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 1996 novel ''Fight Club (novel), Fight Club'' by Chuck Palahniuk. Norton plays The Narrator (F ...

author

Chuck Palahniuk Charles Michael Palahniuk (;, , born February 21, 1962) is an American novelist of Ukrainian and French ancestry who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He has published 19 novels, three nonfiction books, two graphic novels, and two ad ...

in the December 2007 issue of

Playboy Magazine ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefn ...

."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. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Wiig achieved stardom in the late 2000s for her ...

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 West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

'' characterized the novel as "mesmerizing"."'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 the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. In the early 1990's she was author Tom Spanbauer's first student in his now renowned "kitchen table" writing workshops, aka Dangerous Writers. She credits Spanbauer with inspiring her to begin her writing practice. For approximately eighteen years she was a faculty member at the

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 ...

(PNCA) where she developed and launched the writing major and ran two separate speaker series, up until that college merged with another institution, becoming PNCA Willamette. She is a graduate of the

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

's MFA program in creative writing. There, she was a John Weston award winner, and began her teaching career alongside writing. Notably, she studied with author Joy Williams, as well as Dagoberto Gilb and Elizabeth Evans. In 2018, Drake appeared on

Storytellers Telling Stories ''Storytellers Telling Stories'' is an episodic podcast created and hosted by writer and showrunner Jude Brewer Jude Brewer is an American writer, producer, actor, and podcast host, best known for creating and hosting '' Storybound'' and '' ...

, 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 1965 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