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Home > Sandi Sonnenfeld

Sandi Sonnenfeld [1]

Listed as: 
Fiction Writer, Creative Nonfiction Writer
Public address: 
Poughkeespie, NY
New York US
Email: 
authorsandisonnenfeld@outlook.com
Bio: 

A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Sandi Sonnenfeld holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from the University of Washington where she studied under National Book Award Winner Charles Johnson. The author of more than 30 published short stories and personal essays, Sandi's memoir, This Is How I Speak (Seattle: Impassio Press), which recounts her first year at the MFA program at the UW after surviving a terrifying sexual assault, explores what it means to both a young woman and emerging artist in America during the 1980s. Upon its publication, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association named Sandi a 2002 Celebration Author, which honors writers whose work merits special notice. This is How I Speak was also named a July/August 2002 Booksense 76 finalist. Sandi currently lives in New York's beautiful Hudson Valley and is working on an historical novel. She has taught literature, composition and creative writing classes and workshops at Marist College, Western Connecticut State University, Mount Holyoke College, Pierce College (Washington State) and Seattle Central Community College.

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
In which languages are you fluent?: 
English
Favorite authors: 
Isabelle Allende, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Aimee Bender, Geraldine Brooks, Joan Didion, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Fowles, Ellen Gilchrist, Maya Goldberg, Vivian Gornick, Kathryn Harrison, Charles Johnson, Barbara Kingsolver, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Milan Kundera, Lorrie Moore, Flannery O'Connor, Lisa See, Jane Smiley, Graham Swift, Amy Tan, Sarah Vowell
Twitter/X: 
@sandisonnenfeld
Born in: 
New York City, NY
New York
Raised in: 
Rockville Centre, NY
New York
Website: 
https://authorsandisonnenfeld.com [2]
Prizes won: 

Barbara Benson Fiction Prize, Mount Holyoke College (1985); Loren D. Milliman Writing Fellowship, University of Washington (1988); David Dornstein Young Writers Prize, Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education (1993); Celebration Author, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (Fall 2002);  Dream On Scholarship for Cape Cod Story Summit (2020); Finalist, Rosebud Magazine’s X.J. Kennedy Award for Creative Nonfiction (2001), Greensboro Review Literary Awards (2001), the 39th Annual New Millennium Writing Awards for Fiction (2015), and 41st Annual New Millennium Writing Awards for Flash Fiction (2017).

Education: 
University of Washington, Seattle
What I'm reading now: 
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Your Duck is My Duck by Deborah Eisenberg
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
The Way of the Writer by Charles Johnson
American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau by Bill McKibben, Editor
Writers Retreats: 
Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Summer Writers’ Conference
Vermont College of Fine Arts Postgraduate Writers’ Conference
Identifies as: 
American
Feminist
Jewish
Prefers to work with: 
Any

Source URL:https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/sandi_sonnenfeld

Links
[1] https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/sandi_sonnenfeld [2] https://authorsandisonnenfeld.com