Kathleen Rooney is an American writer, publisher, editor, and educator.

Early life and education

Kathleen Rooney was born in

Beckley, West Virginia Beckley is a city in and the county seat of Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States. It was founded on April 4, 1838. This city is the home of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology or West Virginia University, Beckley Campus. ...

and raised in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

. She earned a B.A. from the

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

and an M.F.A. in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

. While at Emerson, she was awarded a 200
Ruth Lilly Fellowship
from ''

Poetry Magazine ''Poetry'' (founded as ''Poetry: A Magazine of Verse'') has been published in Chicago since 1912. It is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Founded by Harriet Monroe, it is now published by the Poetry Foundat ...

''.

Career

Rooney's first book, ''Reading with Oprah: the Book Club That Changed America,'' an in-depth analysis of the cultural and literary impacts of

Oprah's Book Club Oprah's Book Club was a book discussion club segment of the United States, American talk show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', highlighting books chosen by host Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey started the book club in 1996, selecting a new book, usually a nov ...

, was published by

University of Arkansas Press The University of Arkansas Press is a university press that is part of the University of Arkansas and has been a member of the Association of University Presses since 1984. Its mission is to publish peer-reviewed books and academic journals. It wa ...

in 2005 and reissued in 2008. Her first poetry collection, ''Oneiromance (an epithalamion)'' won the 2007 Gatewood Prize from feminist publisher Switchback Books. Rooney was named one of the Best New Voices of 2006 by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, which included her essay "Live Nude Girl" in their influential anthology ''Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers.'' A book-length version, titled ''Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object,'' was published by

in 2009. In 2006, Rooney and Abigail Beckel co-founded Rose Metal Press, an independent not-for-profit publisher of hybrid genres (short short, flash, and micro-fiction; prose poetry; novels-in-verse; book-length linked narrative poems). Rooney is a frequent collaborator with the poet

Elisa Gabbert Elisa Gabbert (born 1979) is an American writer, poet and essayist. She is the author of numerous books and is currently a ''New York Times'' poetry columnist. Biography Gabbert attended Rice University where she studied linguistics and cognitive ...

, with whom she has co-authored the collections ''Something Really Wonderful'' (2007), ''That Tiny Insane Voluptuousness'' (2008), ''Don't ever stay the same; keep changing'' (2009), and ''The Kind of Beauty That Has Nowhere to Go'' (2013). In 2011, with poets Dave Landsberger and Eric Plattner, Rooney co-founded the Chicago not-for-profit poetry collective Poems While You Wait, which composes typewritten poetry on demand at local libraries, street & music festivals, museums, & art galleries. Rooney's 2012 novel-in-verse ''Robinson Alone'' was inspired by the life & work of poet

Weldon Kees Harry Weldon Kees (February 24, 1914 – disappeared July 18, 1955) was an American poet, painter, literary critic, novelist, playwright, jazz pianist, short story writer, and filmmaker. Despite his brief career, Kees is considered an importa ...

and his alter-ego persona-character "Robinson". Her debut novel, ''O, Democracy!'', was released by Fifth Star Press in Spring 2014 and her second novel, ''Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk'', loosely based on the life of Margaret Fishback, was released by St. Martin's Press in 2017. In 2020, Penguin released her third novel ''Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey'', inspired by the true World War I story of the Lost Battalion. A former U.S. Senate Aide, Rooney is a professor at

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

. She lives in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

with her husband, the writer Martin Seay and author of '' The Mirror Thief''.

Selected publications

* ''Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey'', Penguin, 2020, * ''Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk'', St. Martin's Press, 2017, * ''O, Democracy!'', Fifth Star Press, 2014, * ''The Kind of Beauty That Has Nowhere to Go'' (with Elisa Gabbert, Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013) * ''Robinson Alone'', Gold Wake Press, 2012, * * ''Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object'', University of Arkansas Press, 2009, * ''Don't ever stay the same; keep changing'' (with Elisa Gabbert, Spooky Girlfriend Press, 2009) * ''Oneiromance (an epithalamion)'', Switchback Books, 2008, * * ''Something Really Wonderful'' (with Elisa Gabbert, Dancing Girl Press, 2007) * * Included in ''The &NOW Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing'' (&NOW Books, 2013)

References

External links

Kathleen Rooney's author site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rooney, Kathleen Living people American women poets George Washington University alumni Emerson College alumni People from Beckley, West Virginia Novelists from West Virginia DePaul University faculty American women novelists American political writers Writers from Chicago 21st-century American novelists American women essayists 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American essayists Novelists from Illinois Year of birth missing (living people)