BIO

Emma Smith-Stevens is the author of a short story collection, Greyhounds (coming June 3rd, 2025), winner of the Santa Fe Writers Project’s 2022 Literary Awards, judged by Deesha Philyaw; and The Australian (Dzanc Books, 2017).

She grew up in New York City and has worked as a server at a pancake house in Delray Beach, Florida, a department store gift-wrapper in Boca Raton, a personal assistant in Beverly Hills, a scriptwriter for virtual patients used by nursing students, and has taught writing and literature at the University of Florida, Santa Fe College, and the Bard Prison Initiative.

Smith-Stevens' writing has been published widely, including in BOMB Magazine, Literary Hub, Catapult, The Rumpus, Wigleaf, the Evergreen Review, Subtropics, Southampton Review, Joyland, Conjunctions, the New York Times bestselling and Lambda Literary award-winning anthology Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture (Ed. Roxane Gay, Harper Collins), Against Death: 35 Essays on Living (Ed. Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Anvil Press). Her work received a Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize XL: Best of the Small Presses, was selected as a Notable Essay in the 2021 Best American Essays (Ed. Alexander Chee), and was twice included in Wigleaf 's Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions. She holds a B.A. in literature from Bard College and an M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Florida. She lives in Brooklyn, NY and is writing a memoir.