Monica Drake has an MFA from the University of Arizona and teaches at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. She is a contributor of reviews and articles to The Oregonian, The Stranger, and the Portland Mercury and her fiction has appeared in the Beloit Fiction Review, Threepenny Review, The Insomniac Reader, and others. She has been the recipient of an Arizona Commission on the Arts Award, the Alligator Juniper Prize in Fiction, a Millay Colony Fellowship, and was a Tennessee Williams scholar at Sewanee Writers Workshop.
Biography
Titles
Clown Girl
- Introduction by Chuck Palahniuk
- fiction
Clown Girl is more than a great book. Clown Girl is its own reality.
- Chuck Palahniuk
- Author of Fight Club
In this darkly comic novel, Clown Girl lives in Baloneytown, a neighborhood so run down and penniless that drugs, balloon animals, and even rubber chickens contribute to the local currency. Against a backdrop of petty crime, Clown Girl struggles to find her place in the world of high art; she has...Forward
Readings and events
There are currently no events featuring Ms. Drake on the calendar.
News
“Life Was a Roving Party Until I Grew Up,” by Monica Drake for Modern Love, New York Times
If you want to meet an available man who is well dressed, showered and looking good, hang around divorce court. There is one in every town.
Men shave and have their hair cut before they show up....Forward
Tom Spanbauer, Chuck Palahniuk, and Lidia Yuknavitch at PNCA hosted by Monica Drake
Monica Drake at PNCA hosts a reading event with Tom Spanbauer, Chuck Palahniuk, and Lidia Yuknavitch at PNCA.
The Rumpus Interview with Monica Drake, by Roxane Gay
Women age—hell, people age—but the issues women face while aging are complicated, and these complications are finely brought to bear in Monica Drake’s The Stud Book. The novel follows the...Forward
Monica Drake’s “Utensils” on The Rumpus
My husband, my daughter, and I tolerate a fork in our drawer that doesn’t match the rest of the flatware. Nobody uses it. I never put this fork in the dishwasher. It stays clean. It’s totally...Forward
Monica Drake’s short story, “Bones in the Garden,” was an entire issue for the Stranger
Monica Drake and the Stranger Issue to Remember, by Charles Mudede
Remember this?
That entire issue was a short story, “Bones in the Garden,” written by Monica Drake, a Portland author whose recent...Forward
On the Hawthorne Books Blog
“The Ongoing Joke About Women and Money Isn’t Funny Anymore”, by Monica Drake for The Establishment
Posted by Rhonda Hughes on 18 August 2016
My husband has a habit of saying in public that I am “bad with money.” He’ll toss this out in conversation as though it’s common knowledge, expecting to be met with general agreement, not...Forward
PORTLAND WRITER MONICA DRAKE interviewed by Scott McHale for Eleven PDX on March 17, 2016
Posted by Rhonda Hughes on 17 March 2016
The first short story in The Folly of Loving Life begins with a lover’s note from the narrator pleading for forgiveness after throwing her boyfriend’s favorite shirt in a free box on the curb and...Forward
Fifteen Years Ago Fight Club on DVD was Released
Posted by Rhonda Hughes on 05 November 2014
Reading Matthew Korfhage’s article, “Nov. 11, 1999: Brad Pitt’s theatrical dud is released on DVD…” in the Willamette Week, makes me appreciate Portland and its vibrant writing community. I was...Forward
Hawthorne makes introductions
Posted by Rhonda Hughes on 19 March 2013
Imagine going to a party and someone is there to take you in hand, guide you though the room, and introduce you to the guests. These introductions increase the odds that even the most timid...Forward
Hawthorne Goes to Hollywood!
Posted by Rhonda Hughes on 03 March 2013
Hawthorne Books is excited to announce its partnership with ICM and Rocking Stone Media. I have before me the fabulous opportunity to work with agent Ron Bernstein and production designer turned...Forward
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