Kristen Gentry

This week we visit Kristen Gentry in Louisville, Kentucky.

Kristen is the author of Mama Said, longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. She received her M.F.A. from Indiana University. Her award-winning fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appeared in Electric Literature, Crab Orchard Review, and other journals. She is a VONA and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference alumna, former Director of Creative Writing at SUNY Geneseo, and a member of the inaugural Poets & Writers publicity incubator for debut writers. She lives and writes in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.  

For more about Kristen and Mama Said: kristengentry.com

Kristen's Books on the Bed:

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer

Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson

Matt's Gifts for Kristen:

Rattlebone by Maxine Clair

Fifth Born by Zelda Lockhart