Kelly Puig is a Cuban-American writer and interdisciplinary artist. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Brown University’s Literary Arts Program where she was the recipient of the Weston Prize for best graduate work in addition to the Frances Mason Harris Prize for best manuscript of poetry or prose fiction written by a woman. While at Brown, she pursued interdisciplinary coursework at Rhode Island School of Design.
Her cross-genre debut, The Book of Embers, was selected by Amaranth Borsuk for the 2022 Essay Press Book Prize. It will be published as traditional book object by Essay Press in Jan 2025 in conjunction with its release as an artist book rendering. A stand-alone photo-documentary project based on an excerpt from the book recently appeared in Tupelo Quarterly. Additional excerpts are forthcoming in A Mouth Holds Many Things: A De-Canon Hybrid Lit Collection (Spring 2024) from de-canon in collaboration with Fonograf Editions as well as in Hyena by HEXENTEXTE to mark the centennial of Breton’s First Manifesto of Surrealism through a feminist lens.
Kelly’s writing has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Witness, Wag’s Revue, The Columbia Review, and Möbius Strip. At present, Kelly’s work is featured in the Artists’ Books Collection at RISD’s Fleet Library in addition to the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays at Brown’s John Hay Library.
As Creative Director, Kelly co-founded Literati. She completed her undergraduate education at Columbia University with a B.A. in English & Comparative Literature and a Creative Writing Concentration in Poetry. She lives with her son in Boulder, Colorado.
Her unofficial bio may be more telling as a conduit of truth.
