Carmen Maria Machado

Carmen Maria Machado is an accomplished American author, critic, and essayist. She has gained recognition for her work in fiction and nonfiction, and has received numerous awards for her writing. Some of her most notable awards include the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction, and the Shirley Jackson Award.

Machado grew up in Allentown, a town located to the north of Philadelphia. Her father is the son of immigrants, with her grandfather having moved to the United States from Cuba when he was 18 years old. Her grandfather worked in the Patent Office of the US and met his future wife, who had moved to the United States from Austria following the Second World War.

In addition to her award-winning short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, Machado has published her writing in a variety of well-known publications. These include Granta, The New Yorker, Lightspeed Magazine, and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her work has been nominated for several prestigious awards, including the Nebula and National Book awards. Machado is also a distinguished essayist and critic, and her writing has been featured in Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, The New Voices of Fantasy, Best Weird Fiction of the Year, and Best Women's Erotica.

Machado is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has received fellowships and residencies from the Michener-Copernicus Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the CINTAS Foundation, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She currently holds the position of Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and resides in Philadelphia with her wife.