ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, and Best American Fantasy, Judith Cooper’s stories and essays have appeared in New Stories from the Midwest, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. Her work was shortlisted for the SFWP Literary Awards Program; a finalist for the Masters Review Chapbook Contest, the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction, the Glimmer Train Family Matters and Fiction Open contests; and a semifinalist for the Electric Book Award and the Black River Spring Chapbook Competition. She is the recipient of several Illinois Arts Council and City of Chicago fellowships and grants, and has served as a literary grants jury panelist for the City of Chicago Community Arts Assistance Program. Her work has been supported by fellowships and residencies at Ragdale, The Hambidge Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus in Schwandorf, Germany, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, Ireland, and Carraig-na-gcat in West Cork, Ireland. Her work explores themes of religion, illness, and generational transformation. She lives in Chicago and is currently working on a short story collection, a novel, and a memoir in essays about her family.
In her youth she was a chair caner, belly dancer, computer programmer, book store cashier, aid worker in the Philadelphia projects, medical coder, archaeological excavator, and a lab tech. Now that she's all grown up, she has a more serious job.
Born in Philadelphia, she's lived in Baltimore, Cleveland, London, Cleveland again, Philadelphia, Leeds, Philadelphia again, Iowa City, and finally, Chicago.
That's her story, and she's sticking to it.
In her youth she was a chair caner, belly dancer, computer programmer, book store cashier, aid worker in the Philadelphia projects, medical coder, archaeological excavator, and a lab tech. Now that she's all grown up, she has a more serious job.
Born in Philadelphia, she's lived in Baltimore, Cleveland, London, Cleveland again, Philadelphia, Leeds, Philadelphia again, Iowa City, and finally, Chicago.
That's her story, and she's sticking to it.