Lauren W. Westerfield
Lauren W. Westerfield
Biography
Lauren W. Westerfield is a writer, editor, and educator originally from Northern California. Her essays and poetry have most recently appeared in FENCE, Seneca Review, Willow Springs, Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, and Ninth Letter. She earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Idaho, and is a scholarly assistant professor in the English department at Washington State University, where she teaches creative writing, professional writing, editing and publishing, digital storytelling, and composition. In addition to teaching, she is the Editing and Publishing Certificate coordinator and serves as the editor-in-chief of Blood Orange Review. Outside of WSU, Westerfield is the nonfiction editor at Split/Lip Press, a small independent press publishing boundary-breaking prose books. She is the recipient of a 2022 Fellowship in Literature from the Idaho Commission on the Arts in support of her current book project, a memoir in essays exploring epigenetics, illness, artmaking, addiction, autonomy, sexuality, power, and shame.
Education
MFA Creative Writing, Nonfiction, University of Idaho, 2018.
BA English & American Literatures, Middlebury College, 2007
Creative Interests
Literary and personal essays, autotheory, autofiction, creative/critical essays, experimental and hybrid/genre-crossing prose, visual art and art writing, feminist art, feminist theory, travel writing, and classic cinema.
Teaching Interests
Contemporary issues and behind-the-scenes exploration of literary editing and publishing, developmental literary editing, creative nonfiction/personal essay writing, autotheory and creative/critical analysis, experimental prose writing, arts & culture writing, and research-based writing.
Honors & Awards
Iowa Review Creative Nonfiction Contest – Finalist, 2022
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts – Writer-In-Residence Award, 2022
Idaho Commission on the Arts, Fellowship in Literature, 2022
Pushcart Prize Nominee, 2021
Stillhouse Press Experimental Prose Prize – Winner, 2021
Service Excellent Award, Washington State University, 2021
Access Center Faculty of the Year Award – Nominee, Washington State University, 2021
Pushcart Prize Nominee, 2020
Instructor Distinguished Service Award, Washington State University, 2020
Idaho Commission on the Arts, Individual Grant, 2020
Pushcart Prize Nominee, 2019
Summer Research/Creative Activity Fellowship, Washington State University, 2019
Graduate Fellow, Center for Digital Inquiry & Learning, University of Idaho, 2018
Pushcart Prize Nominee, 2018
Phoebe Nonfiction Contest – Finalist, 2018
Best New Poets Nominee, 2018
Alumni Award for Excellent, University of Idaho, 2018
Montana Book Festival Emerging Writers Contest – Finalist, 2018
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts – Writer-In-Residence Award, 2017
Academy of American Poets Prize – Honorable Mention, 2017
AWP Intro Journals Award Nominee, 2016
Centrum Fellowship, University of Idaho, 2016
Selected Publications
Essays
FENCE – Madonna of the Master Bath, 2021
Seneca Review – A Broom to Remove the Dust, 2021
Denver Quarterly – Cramping at The Bone, 2020
Third Coast – [This Body] Fictions, 2020
Indiana Review – Dark Storage, 2019
Ninth Letter – That Same Summer, 2019
The Pinch – On Shame, 2019
DIAGRAM – Bruxisms, 2018
New Delta Review – Milk Clock, 2018
Sonora Review – Indentations, 2018
The Baltimore Review – The Need to Use Your Teeth, 2018
Phoebe – Depth Control, 2018
Poetry
Opt West – “Tampa Elegy,” 2022
Willow Springs – “Snow,” 2020
Hobart – “As Killjoy,” “As Block Paragraph,” 2018
Permafrost – “The Color Field,” 2018
Phoebe – “Tumbleweed,” 2017
Noble/Gas Quarterly – “As Saturnine in Spring,” “As Flash Rain in Summer,” 2017
Website