Gail is a writer of young adult and adult fiction. Her short story “The Cottage,” published by Torch Literary Arts, is nominated for the 2024 O. HENRY PRIZE. She is also a 2022 Kimbilio Fellow, the WINNER of the 2022 Taint Taint Taint James Baldwin Fiction Prize, a finalist for the 2022 Pen Parentis Fellowship, a 2021 Tin House YA Scholar, a 2021 Community of Writers Scholar, a finalist for the 2021 Crystal Wilkinson Creative Writing Prize, and the WINNER of the 2021 Tupelo Quarterly Prose Open Prize. Gail holds a Ph.D. in English from Binghamton University’s program for writers (SUNY), an MFA in fiction from Chicago State University, and a BA in English from Howard University (The Mecca!). Gail has recent short stories published or forthcoming in The Missouri Review, Obsidian: Journal & Ideas in the African Diaspora, Tupelo Quarterly, Taint Taint Taint Magazine, Torch Literary Arts, and Sequestrum Literature and Art. She is currently at work on two young adult novels and a collection of linked short stories for an adult audience. She is represented by the brilliant Lucy Irvine of Peters Fraser & Dunlop.
Originally from the south side of Chicago, Gail now lives in Maryland with three kiddos and a hubs. When she’s not making up stories, she serves as an assistant nonfiction editor at Tupelo Press and as chapter lead for the Maryland chapter of Women Who Submit, an organization empowering women and non-binary writers to submit their work for publication. Besides this, she also teaches composition and literature at a small community college in Maryland and keeps up with Academy Awards buzz.
Gail Upchurch 