Sonya Huber’s books include Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto, which Publisher’s Weekly called a “spirited look at craft.” Her essay collection Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System was a Foreword “Indie Next” Book of the Year Silver Medal Award Winner and received the Gold Medal for General Excellence, and has been called “important, luminous, and necessary.” It was on the New Stateman Best Books of 2018. She’s written three other books of creative nonfiction, including Supremely Tiny Acts: A Memoir in a Day, which is a one-day stream-of-consciousness account of a climate action, organized by Extinction Rebellion, in which the author was arrested in Times Square. Her first book, Opa Nobody, was shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize, and her second book, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir, was a finalist for Foreword Book of the Year and Grub Street Nonfiction Book of the Year. Her other nonfiction books include The Evolution of Hillary Rodham Clinton and a textbook, The Backwards Research Guide for Writers. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Fourth Genre, and other outlets. She’s received the 2012 Creative Nonfiction Award from Terrain; her essays were named notable in Best American Essays 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019. She teaches at Fairfield University and in Fairfield’s Low-Residency MFA Program. Born in Illinois, her work before academia included work in the nonprofit sector as well as journalism and social work. She received the Kiplinger Fellowship in Public Interest Journalism and received her MA in Journalism and her MFA in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She was the co-founder of an activist labor network in Columbus, Ohio, a chapter of Jobs with Justice, and more recently founded the 2017 online Disability March. She currently serves as a community board member for the National Pain Action Center. I published an e-book on direct care work with SheBooks, Two Eyes are Never Enough: A Minimum-Wage Memoir. She now teaches at Fairfield University in Connecticut.
I’ve been lucky to be able to read and presented my work and led workshops in non-academic settings including with incarcerated men in Connecticut, with doctors and nurses in Iowa, with the U.S. Pain Foundation and local pain support groups, at literary festivals, at the Wisdom House retreat center, with writers at several libraries around the country, with veterans and incarcerated men, and with activists in public housing. In these settings I’ve taught such topics as writing about pain, researching and writing family history, and using memoir and the essay to draw out stories and life insights.
My informal bio with more of the real dirt is here. I blog a lot on random stuff. I wrote the Shadow Syllabus. I write a lot about healthcare, government and economics, being a parent, being politically active, and general nerdery. I love the essay: the opportunity to reflect, explore, ask questions, and not know. I'm from Illinois, I have a loud laugh, and I like to pick up things I find on the ground. And I'm now on Mastodon here.
You can get in touch with me at shuber (at) fairfield.edu.
Click on the social media icons at the bottom of the page to find me on social networks.
Sign up for my periodic (very infrequent) update list below
Or send me a note in the comment box below!
Official Bio
Planning a visit or reading?
I'm happy to Skype with your class or a book club about one of my books or about writing memoir or creative nonfiction. I've visited many libraries and schools (see past events here) and have also conducted multiple writing workshops.
Sign up for (infrequent) updates!
Literally I remember to send an email maybe once a year, so don't worry about a barrage.