Diane Simmons
Diane Simmons, a native of the Mountain West, is the author of numerous works of award-winning fiction
non-fiction, journalism and criticism.
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.
Working on: travel essays, and a novel set in labor-radical Seattle in the Great Depression.
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. https://www.bodyliterature.com/essays/
-"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. https://hippocampusmagazine.com/2022/03/the-big-time-by-diane-simmons/
- “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.
- "Nobody Goes to the Gulag Any More" -published in Missouri Review - excerpted in LitHub.
ACTIVISM:
-with Maplewood Dems, Activate America, and other progressive groups. Getting out the vote, and fighting fighting attempts at voter suppression
- with New York City climate group Third Act: protesting big bank funding of new fossil fuel projects
-Chair Non-Fiction Award Committee – PEN American Center Prison Writing Committee
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