Diane Simmons

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Diane Simmons, a native of the Mountain West, is the author of numerous works of award-winning fiction 

non-fiction, journalism and criticism. 

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A former newspaper and magazine reporter in Idaho, Washington and Alaska,  she holds a BA in history, an MA in Creative Writing, and an Ph.D. in English literature. She is a Professor of English at City University of New York, and recently served as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow in the Czech Republic.

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Working  on:  travel essays, and  a novel set in  labor-radical  Seattle in the Great Depression. 

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Recent essays: 

"An Old Portrait in a Dark Closet" -a trip back in time to discover secrets of my mother's Deep South family. Published in B O D Y, an international literary journal based in Prague.

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-"The Big Time" -a personal essay: a cub reporter has to spend the night in a North Idaho brothel to get the story. Published, online literary non-fiction magazine Hippocampus.

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- “Principles You’re Making a Killing on Them!”-runner-up travel-writing contest and published In NOWHERE magazine.  Nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Translated into Czech and published in Czech literary Magazine, HOST.

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- "Nobody Goes to the Gulag Any More" -published in Missouri Review - excerpted in LitHub.​​

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ACTIVISM: 

-with Maplewood Dems, Activate America, and other progressive groups.  Getting out the vote, and fighting  fighting attempts at voter suppression

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- with New York City climate group Third Act: protesting big bank funding of new fossil fuel projects 

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-Chair Non-Fiction Award Committee –  PEN American Center Prison Writing Committee

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