September Third Thursday: “Writing and Publishing Short Fiction”

Featured Presenter(s)

Chelsea Bieker is the author of the novel GODSHOT, which was a finalist for both the Oregon and California Book Awards, long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, named an NPR Best Book of the Year, and a Barnes & Noble Fiction Pick. Her story collection, HEARTBROKE, is was published in April 2022, and was named a best book of April by Nylon Magazine and an NPR Best Book of the Year. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, The Cut, McSweeney’s, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, and other publications. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and a MacDowell Fellowship. Originally from California’s Central Valley, she now lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two children.

K-Ming Chang is a Kundiman fellow, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. She is the author of the New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice novel BESTIARY (One World/Random House, 2020), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. In 2021, her chapbook BONE HOUSE was published by Bull City Press. Her most recent book is GODS OF WANT (One World/Random House, 2022). Her next book is a novel titled ORGAN MEATS. She lives in California.

Thomas H. McNeely has received fellowships from the Wallace Stegner Program at Stanford University, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Dobie Paisano Program at the University of Texas, among many other awards for his writing.  In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews called McNeely's new collection of stories, Pictures of the Shark "an emotionally taut and often haunting collection." McNeely's first book, Ghost Horse, won the Gival Press Novel Award. He has published short stories and non-fiction in The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Ploughshares, and many other magazines and anthologies. He currently teaches in the Stanford Online Writing Studio and at Emerson College, Boston.

Sam Babiak holds a B.A. in English Literature with a certificate in Creative Writing with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin. She loves talking to writers about their craft and has moderated panels and conversations with the WLT, the Texas Book Festival, HavenCon, and BookPeople. She’s spent time as a reading intern with a literary agent at Massie & McQuilkin and she’s volunteered for the Echo Literary Arts Magazine fiction board, Badgerdog Creative Writing Camps, and Letters About Literature. Her writing can be found or is forthcoming from HotHouse Literary Journal and the lickety~split. She is from Laredo, Texas and currently lives in Austin, Texas.