It is a novel about having a mother leave you, becoming a mother, and also about motherhood. Chelsea prefers to write in the first-person perspective and has a penchant and knack for telling the truths of life that people find uncomfortable.Ĭhelsea Bieker has described “Godshot,” her debut novel as a story that she had to write. Unlike many works of fiction, they are not works that can easily be classified as they are literarily complex yet accessible with some having a comedic slant. While she has lived in Portland for much of her life the Central Valley landscape in California is a common setting in her novels that are an exploration of longing, abandonment, hope, family, motherhood, family and faith. Bieker was born in Fresno California but moved to Portland in 2010 as she wanted to attend Portland State’s prestigious MFA program. Similar to the likes of authors such as Claire Vaye Watkins, and Flannery O’Connor, place seems to be central in her novels and short fiction. She currently lives with her husband and children in Portland Oregon.Ĭhelsea Bieker covers much ground in her work but similar to what she writes in her nonfiction works, she tends to stick to core themes and settings. Chelsea is also one of the tutors at the Gotham and Catapult Writers Workshop. Apart from her writing, she is also a parent and professor at Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg Area Community College where she teaches composition. Her timely and wrenching essay “Why We Must Believe Women” made the What We’re Reading List by the New York Times and was published by Catapult. Apart from the Jaffe Award, she has also been a nominee for the prestigious Pushcart Prize and won a fellowship to the writing fellowship known as the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire.
Chelsea Bieker has accomplished a lot given that she had won several prizes for her fiction aged only 31.
The author has a bachelor’s in journalism degree from Cal Poly State University and a creative writing MFA from Portland State University. Bieker’s writing has been published in a variety of publications including “Cosmonauts Avenue,” “Granta,” “No Tokens,” “McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern,” “The Normal School,” “Catapult,” “The Cincinnati Review,” “Electric Literature” and “Joyland” among others.
When she won the Jaffe Award, she got a two-book deal with Catapult books and that marked the moment her career as a professional author took off. She is famously the recipient of the Rona Jaffe Writer’s Foundation Award and is also the author of “Cowboys and Angels” that she published in 2021. Chelsea Bieker is a literary fiction author from Central Valley California best known for her debut novel “Godshot” published in 2020.
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