Photograph of author Carmen Maria Machado sitting in a chair

Carmen Maria Machado

Distinguished Visiting Writer 2020

About Carmen Maria Machado

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the memoir In the Dream House and the short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Brooklyn Public Library Literature Prize, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize. In 2018, the New York Times listed Her Body and Other Parties as a member of "The New Vanguard," one of "15 remarkable books by women that are shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century."

Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York TimesGrantaHarper’s BazaarTin HouseVQRConjunctionsMcSweeney's Quarterly Concern, The BelieverGuernicaBest American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Michener-Copernicus Foundation, Elizabeth George Foundation, CINTAS Foundation, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She is the Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Philadelphia with her wife.

Find events with this speaker

Saturday, March 21, 2021, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Renowned author Carmen Maria Machado joins the Piper Center for an unforgettable talk and reading on Saturday, March 21, 2020.

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Thursday, March 20, 2020, 7:00 p.m.

In this talk, we’ll explore the craft of writing fiction that doesn’t move—fiction contained in a single, discreet space as large as a house, and as small as a bed—and the implication it has for our understanding of gender, characterization, and plot.

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Saturday, March 21, 2021, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Renowned author Carmen Maria Machado joins the PIper Center for an unforgettable talk and reading Saturday, March 21, 2020. Open to the public and free.

Register | Learn more