Amity Gaige

Amity Gaige is the author of two novels, O My Darling (2005), and The Folded World (2007).

O My Darling was described by the Los Angeles Times as "a wistful diorama of domestic life: the impossibility of fresh starts, the hazards of full disclosure." The book was named one of Kirkus Magazine's Best Books of 2005. Following its publication, Gaige was named one of five emerging novelists under 35 to be honored at the National Book Awards in 2006. The Folded World, a novel about a young social worker who endangers his marriage while working with his clients, has been widely praised in many major news sources, including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, and National Public Radio. Gaige's body of work was recently honored in The Literary Review's 50th Anniversary edition. Gaige has previously taught creative writing at the University of Iowa, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow, and the University of Rhode Island's Providence Campus, where she received the Faculty of the Year Award in 2004. Also in that year, she received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach creative writing in Latvia. In teaching creative writing, she encourages student writers to identify their literary antecedents, and to become conscious of their own distinct world views. She is currently teaching a course on women's anger in literature, and a course on the crafting of the novel. She is at work on a third novel set during the fall of the Soviet Union.


Selected Publications

The Folded World (Other Press, May 2007).

"Villanelle." The Literary Review: 50th Anniversary 50, 4 (2007): 116-129.

O My Darling (Other Press, 2005).

"A Chance to Listen to a Nation Finding Its Voice." Los Angeles Times 5 May 2005: Commentary Section B13.

"The Beautiful Truth." Mississippi Review Prize Issue 32, 1 & 2 (2004): 118-137.