Amanda is a writer living in Colorado by way of Arkansas, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, D.C., the Netherlands, Turkey, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, and Spain (hello, fellow army brats). She is a University of Arkansas alum, a Lighthouse Writers Workshop alum, and a Tin House workshop alum. Her work has appeared in The Missouri Review, Bourbon Penn, and elsewhere. She has received awards for her work from Arizona State University, The Missouri Review, Uncharted Magazine, and been a bridesmaid for The Tobias Wolff Award and others. She is working on a novel. To receive publication updates please sign up for alerts and/or follow on Instagram.
Amanda shares home with her husband and two daughters. She is an army brat. She attended the George Washington University and the University of Arkansas, receiving her B.A. in English (creative writing in poetry) and M.A. in teaching. She taught high school literature before moving into nonprofit program management and then development, where the cards have currently settled. She works in development for a literary journal.
Amanda has published short literary and speculative fiction in print and online journals. She is completing a novel. Follow links to stories here.
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
“Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war. ”
Amanda is an Alabaman by birth and Arkansan by upbringing who has acclimated to altitude in Colorado. She loves leaf peeping, bird spotting, telling her kids to hydrate, and making sure no toddlers walk into the fire pit while camping. Amanda is a member of Lighthouse Writers Workshops, a Book Project graduate and Lit Fest Master Class alum. She attended the Tin House Winter Workshop in 2019. She graduated from the University of Arkansas with a B.A. in poetry. She makes shit up. But not right here.
Amanda is a contributor to Fiction Unbound. She is a nonprofit development specialist by day and has freelanced as a grant writer, ghostwriter, and copywriter.
“Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure. ”