Cara Blue Adams

Cara Blue Adams serves as an Associate Professor in the MFA program at Temple University, renowned for her critically acclaimed interlinked story collection You Never Get It Back (University of Iowa Press, 2021), named a New York Times Editors’ Choice.

Her educational background includes a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Smith College and an MFA from the University of Arizona, complemented by residencies at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and Sewanee Writers’ Conference.

Adams’ creative scholarship explores contemporary American life through literary fiction, with thematic focus on class dynamics, gender expectations, and the friction between personal ambition and societal constraints. Her work manifests in over twenty-five published stories across Granta, The Kenyon Review, and Electric Literature, alongside nonfiction in Bookforum and The Believer.

Her award portfolio demonstrates exceptional recognition:

• John Simmons Short Fiction Prize (Winner)
• The Story Prize (Longlist)
• Mary McCarthy Prize (Shortlist)
• Kenyon Review Short Fiction Prize
• Missouri Review William Peden Prize
• Meringoff Prize in Fiction
• Pushcart Prize Notable (2018)
• Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellowship (2018)

Significant institutional support includes fellowships from the New York State Council on the Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Lighthouse Works, and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center. As an educator, she mentors emerging writers at Temple while maintaining her practice as a published author, previously serving as coeditor of The Southern Review. She resides in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley.