Jenn Shapland is a highly accomplished author, archivist, and professor, currently residing in New Mexico with her partner. She is best known for her debut novel, "My Autobiography of Carson McCullers," which was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award, won the 2021 Lambda Literary Award, the Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award, and the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award. Shapland's work has been supported by prestigious fellowships such as the Georgia O'Keeffe fellowship, and she has held residencies at renowned institutions such as Yaddo, Ucross, Tin House Writers Workshop, and the Vermont Studio Center.
Before becoming a critically acclaimed memoir author, Shapland had her fiction published in esteemed publications such as "Lit Hub," "O," the "Oprah Magazine," "Outside Online," "The Paris Review Daily," and "Tin House," among others. She earned her doctorate from the Texas University at Austin and is now a professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts Creative Writing department in Santa Fe.
In addition to her work as an author, Shapland is also an accomplished archivist and has worked for a visual artist. She has a PhD in English from the University of Texas at Austin. Her second book, "Thin Skin," was published in August 2023 by Pantheon Books. Shapland's essays have been featured in prominent publications such as "New England Review," the "New York Times," "Outside," "Guernica," and "Tin House."