Emily Nemens is a writer, editor, illustrator, and educator. Her second novel, CLUTCH, will be published by Tin House in early 2026. Her debut novel, The Cactus League, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2020. Her short stories have appeared in Blackbird (Tarumoto Prize winner), Esquire, n+1, BOMB, The Iowa Review, Hobart, and The Gettysburg Review. As a professor she served as the Rachel Rivers-Coffey Distinguished Professorship in Creative Writing at Appalachian State (2023) and the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at University of Leipzig (2022-23). She's also led creative writing workshops at Drew University, Center for Fiction, and 92Y. From 2018 to 2021, Emily served as the editor of The Paris Review, the nation’s preeminent literary quarterly. During her tenure, the magazine published two anthologies, produced the second season of its acclaimed podcast, and won the 2020 American Society of Magazine Editors’ Award for Fiction. Previously, she coedited The Southern Review, a storied literary journal published at Louisiana State University. In 2021 she joined the staff of Stranger’s Guide as the sports/senior editor.As an illustrator, she’s collaborated with Harvey Pekar, published her work in The New Yorker, and her watercolor portraits of every woman in congress were featured across the web and on national TV. Feel free to contact Emily to chat about literary community-building through outreach & education, freelance editing services for books and magazines, and illustration projects. www.emilynemens.com and emily.nemens@gmail.com