Marilyn Moriarty

Professor Marilyn Moriarty received her doctorate from the University of California, Irvine, with a dissertation on Shakespeare and a second emphasis in literary theory. She compiled the text of two Shakespeare plays for drama anthologies and co-edited a collection of essays on postmodern architecture. She is the author of Writing Science through Critical Thinking, a scientific writing textbook, and Moses Unchained, which won the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Creative Nonfiction Award. Her essays have been published in The Antioch Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Creative Nonfiction, The Kenyon Review, Raritan, River Teeth, and others. Three have been named “Notable” by editors of the Best American Essays series. She won the 2014 Faulkner-Wisdom Gold Medal for the essay. Her stories have won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize, the Peregrine Prize for fiction, and the University of Utah novella contest. Her essay “Bone Lab” was anthologized in the 2024 Best Spiritual Literature (Vol. 9). Most recently she was announced the winner in the Scriptwriting Category of the 2025 Hammond House International Literary Prize. Her forthcoming book Splintered Shadows: Recovering a French Résistante will be out in August 2026 from University of North Georgia Press.  She began teaching at Hollins University in 1992 and celebrates her retirement at the end of this year.