About
Miranda Schmidt’s work circles the folkloric, the familial, queer magic, and the more-than-human world. Their writing has appeared in Triquarterly, Orion, Electric Literature, Catapult, and more. She has studied at the University of Washington MFA Program, Bath Spa University PhD program, the Lambda Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Writers, the Bread Loaf Environmental Conference, and the Tin House Workshop. Miranda has taught creative writing at the Portland Book Festival, the Loft, the University of Washington, and Portland Community College. Their ongoing newsletter and teaching project,Writing Toward Nature, explores methods for bringing the more-than-human more deeply into our writing craft. Miranda was born in the Bay Area, grew up in Illinois, lived in London, New York, and Seattle, and now calls Portland, Oregon home. Leafskin, Miranda’s debut novel, will be published with Stillhouse Press in March 2025.
Featured Work
Leafskin
A poet and her husband have been trying to make a baby. But while undergoing fertility treatments in the midst of a harrowing wildfire season, Jo reconsiders raising a child in a time of climate crisis. When her artist ex-girlfriend, who has always had an uncanny connection to nature, re-enters her life, Jo struggles to navigate the transformations in her relationships and realities.
Miranda Schmidt's lyrical debut novel blurs the boundaries between poetry and prose, human and nonhuman, reality and magic. A tale of queer love, new motherhood, and ecological interconnectedness, Leafskin interrogates how we create, and what we become, in a time of environmental devastation.
Other Works
Awards and Recognition
- Poets & Writers Get the Word Out Fiction Fellow
- Atticus Hotel Artist in Residency
- Bread Loaf Environmental Conference Katharine Bakeless Nason Scholarship
- Lambda Literary Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellow, Editorial Scholarship
