Discover the private creative lives of others.

Featuring special guest, author and playwright Monica Byrne!

Monica Byrne is a Durham based writer of mostly science fiction, magical realism, and plays. She studied at Wellesley College and MIT for degrees in biochemistry, before remembering her love of writing and moving to Durham to be fully committed to the craft. Her debut novel, The Girl in the Road, was published in 2014. It won the Tiptree Award and was listed for the Kitschie, Locus, and DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. She’s performed original monologues twice at TED, hosted a technology series for ViceUK, and spoken across the country on futurism and science fiction. 

Her short stories and essays have been published in The Baffler, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Wired, Tor.com, Electric Velocipede, Fantasy Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Electric Literature, and Glimmer Train.  She’s written five plays produced in Durham, one of which, What Every Girl Should Know, has been performed from Berkeley to Dublin. She’s currently finishing a second novel, The Actual Star; working with the city of Durham to establish fair labor practices for independent artists; advocating for survivors in several ongoing #metoo cases; and finishing a new all-woman play called Wild America, about the disintegration of Western democracy.

She is supported entirely by patrons on Patreon.  Consider signing up here or making a one-time donation here.