Angela Pelster

About Me

Bio

Angela Pelster's most recent book Limber won the Great Lakes Colleges Association Award for best new book in Nonfiction, and was a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Tin House, Granta, The Kenyon Review and The Gettysburg Review amongst others. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow, and was recently awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board grant for 2016-17. She lives with her family in St Paul, Minnesota and teaches at Hamline University.

Reviews for Limber

Los Angeles Review of Books, Issue 16 (Winter 2015)

Interviews

Publications

Books

Limber: published by Sarabande Books, 2014

The Curious Adventures of India Sophia, published by River Books, 2005

Anthologies

"Once, Then." Beautiful Flesh: A Body of Essays, edited by Stephanie G'Shwind, published by Colorado State University

"Temple." Rooted: An Anthology of Arboreal Nonfiction, edited by Josh MacIvor-Anderson, published by Outpost 19

Literary Magazines and Journals

"The Trial." Ploughshares, forthcoming Winter 2018/19

"Charlottesville, 2017." Tin House, 2018

"On Invention: A Craft Essay." Black Warrior Review, issue 44.1, January 2017

"A Map to Now." Black Warrior Review, issue 44.1, fall 2017

"Eating the Dead: A Guided Tour." River Teeth Journal, 2016

"Once, Then." Passages North, 2016

"Isography." The Kenyon Review, 2015

"Memory Games" Lumina Literary Magazine, 2015

"Saskatoons." Hotel Amerika, 2014

"Ethan Lockwood." Fourth Genre, 2013

"Meditations On a Tree Frog." Seneca Review, 2012

"The Boys of Karachay Lake." Granta, 2011

"Lost With the Dogs." Relief Journal, 2009

Newspaper

"The Evolution of the Heart." The Globe and Mail: Facts and Argument Essays, 2008

"Heart Divided." The Globe and Mail: Facts and Argument Essays, 2008

Director of: Writers Go to the Movies

A screening series for writers and movie lovers

This film series will take place at the Bryant Lake Bowl on the first Wednesday of every month, starting in 2018. Each screening will begin with a brief (5-10 minute) introduction of the movie by the writer who will discuss how it has informed or inspired their writing practice. After the movie, the writer and a specialist (someone engaged with the film's themes or subject matter - a dancer/ scientist/ lawyer/ painter/ film scholar, etc.) will have a conversation about the film, writing, art making and the ways in which different practices inform one another. The audience is invited to participate in the conversation through questions and comments.

What We've Been Doing

Check out our Facebook page to see which writer and movie is up next.

So far, we've had Ed Bok Lee, Chris Martin and Joe Horton presenting on Arrival, Wretches and Jabberers and Akira Kurosawa's Dreams.

Interested Writers

If you are a writer who would like to present a film, feel free to send me an email.

present a film

Awards

Minnesota State Arts Board Award, 2017

Granted to support the completion of my my new manuscript City Symphony.

Outstanding Faculty Award, 2016-2017

For teaching done at Hamline University in the Creative Writing Programs.

Pushcart Nomination, 2016

For "Eating the Dead: A Guided Tour," published in River Teeth Journal.

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel award for the Art of the Essay, 2015

Finalist for Limber.

Great Lakes Colleges Association Best New Writer Award, 2015

Winner for Limber.

Best American Essay 2013

Notable mention for "Rot," published in The Gettysburg Review, 2013.

War Prayer: Lyric Essay Film

Screenplay for the essay film War Prayer directed by Richard Wiebe.

Premiered at The International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2015

Highlights of Screening History:

Festival Les Inattendus, Lyon, France, 2016

Sheffield Fringe Documentary Film Festival, Sheffield, UK, 2016

Iowa City Documentary Film Festival, 2015 (BEST OF FESTIVAL)

UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art, Brooklyn, NY, 2015

Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2015 (JURY AWARD)

FID Marseille, Documentary Film Festival, Marseille, Fran

Writer & Teacher