Emily Wells

Emily Wells is a writer and creative writing instructor at the University of California, Irvine. She holds an MFA in fiction from UC Riverside and is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir A Matter of Appearance, which explores chronic illness, gender, and representation through the lens of her experience with Behcet's Disease.

Her research interests span creative writing, memoir, chronic illness narratives, gender studies, medical humanities, and ballet history. Wells approaches her work with an associative model that reflects the fragmented nature of illness experience, connecting personal narrative to broader cultural and historical contexts including 19th-century French hysteria and contemporary medical discourse.

Wells' writing has been praised by The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and other prominent publications for its 'crystalline beauty and razorlike insight.' Her work examines the fraught intersection between pain, language, and gender, exploring how women's bodies have been historically positioned as sites of performance and medical scrutiny.

• Author of A Matter of Appearance (Seven Stories Press)
• Teaches writing at UC Irvine
• Holds MFA in fiction from UC Riverside
• Former editor at fashion and art magazines
• Former newspaper reporter

Wells' teaching philosophy emphasizes daily dedication to craft within constraints, drawing from her experience navigating chronic illness while maintaining a creative practice. She encourages students to find forms that authentically represent their experiences while engaging with the complex relationship between physical sensation and language.