Michelle Hoover is an American writer and college instructor. She is the author of ''The Quickening'', a 2010 novel.

Biography

She was born in

Ames, Iowa Ames () is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately north of Des Moines in central Iowa. It is best known as the home of Iowa State University (ISU), with leading agriculture, design, engineering, and veterinary medici ...

, but currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She was selected as the Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a private liberal arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts and Sciences, Freeman College of Management, and the College of Engineering. ...

. She was a MacDowell Fellow from the

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowell ...

. She has taught writing at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

and, since 2014, teaches at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

as the Fannie Hurst writer-in-residence. She also teaches at GrubStreet, where she co-founded the Novel Incubator program. She has an MFA from

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

. In 2014 she was selected as the National Endowment of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship.

Works

Hoover is a contributor to the Best New American Voices anthology. She has also published short stories and novel excerpts in literary journals, including

Prairie Schooner ''Prairie Schooner'' is a literary magazine published quarterly at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with the cooperation of UNL's English Department and the University of Nebraska Press. It is based in Lincoln, Nebraska and was first publish ...

Confrontation Confrontation is an element of conflict wherein parties confront one another, directly engaging one another in the course of a dispute between them. A confrontation can be at any scale, between any number of people, between entire nations or cult ...

, StoryQuarterly, and

The Massachusetts Review ''The Massachusetts Review'' is a literary quarterly founded in 1959 by a group of professors from Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It receives financial support from Five Colleg ...

. In 2005 she won th
PEN/New England Discovery Award for Fiction
Her novel, ''The Quickening'', was published in 2010 by

Other Press Other Press is an independent publisher of literary fiction and nonfiction, based in New York City. Founded in 1998 to publish academic and psychoanalytic titles, Other Press has since expanded to publish novels, short stories, nonfiction, poetr ...

(). It was based on her own family history and a journal her grandmother, Melva Current, wrote during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. It was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, was a finalist for the Indies Choice Debut in 2010, was a finalist in the Literary Fiction category for ''Foreword Magazine's'' 2010 Book of the Year Awards, and was a 2010 Massachusetts Book Award "Must Read" pick. ''Poets and Writers'' magazine picked ''The Quickening'' as one of its Top 5 Debut novels in 2010. Her second novel, ''Bottomland'' (), was published on March 1, 2016, by Grove Press, Black Cat. It was chosen as the 2017 All Iowa Reads selection.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoover, Michelle Living people 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people) Writers from Boston Writers from Iowa Boston University faculty Brandeis University faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni