“An evangelist for story’s power to transform lives.” —Star-Tribune
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About.
Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life. Her work appears in the Best American Essays, New York Times, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Tin House, Longreads, LitHub, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for National Public Radio, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and theaters, festivals, and classrooms across the country. She teaches creative writing in Chicago and is an editor at Northwestern University Press.
Presently.
Creative nonfiction faculty for Northwestern’s MFA in Prose & Poetry.
Creative nonfiction faculty for StoryStudio (thank you, StoryStudio).
Senior Fellow with the Annenberg Innovation Lab.
Occasional freelance developmental editor.
Single mom in a pandemic, doing my best.
Previously.
Shearing Fellow with the Black Mountain Institute.
Resident Faculty at the Chautauqua Institute.
Mentor Editor at The Op Ed Project.
Associate Director of the Center for Innovation in Teaching Excellence + Faculty in the Department of English & Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago.
Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Chicago.
Director of Story Development at 2nd Story.
Favorites.
Reading Channel B for National Public Radio and Radio National Australia.
Talking with Samantha Irby for The Believer.
Talking with Maggie Smith for the Family Action Network.
Talking with essayist Nicole Piasecki about the shooting at our high school.
Talking about aging for Oldster.
Talking about teaching for Electric Literature.
A student on what it’s like to work with me.
On the rerelease of my first two books.
Contact.
My writing is represented by Meredith Kaffel Simonoff at The Gernert Company.
If you have questions about The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, you can reach out to Emily Griffin. If you have questions about Once I Was Cool or Everyone Remain Calm, please contact Madeline Schultz.
If you’d like to submit your work to me for consideration at Northwestern University Press, come over here.
You can email me, if you’d like to say hi. I can’t respond to everything right now but I’ll do my best.
Photo by Jess Tschirki.
© 2021-2025 Megan Stielstra