story deals with a lot of social and identity issues – race, sexual identity, fear of intimacy, etc. ^ 'News of an 'Outrage' Used to Mean Something Very, Very Different (Published 2018)'.'What to Expect When You're Expecting Fascism'. 'It's Beyoncé's World and We're Just Living In It'.

^ 'Keeping it Weird in Austin, Texas'.

^ 'No Polenta, No Cry (Published 2009)'.

^ 'Working the Reunion (Published 2008)'.

^ 'Review: '100 Years of Best American Short Stories' is vital yet flawed for loading the canon'.

^ David Austin Gura, 'ZZ Packer's edition of Southern stories straddles old and new Dixie', Indy Week.

^ ZZ Packer, 'Dayward', The New Yorker, June 14, 2010.

^ Daniel Robert Epstein, 'ZZ Packer author of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere' (interview), Suicide Girls, July 19, 2004.

^ '10 Books Recommended by Pulitzer Prize Winners'.

^ 'Drinking Coffee Elsewhere', Barnes & Noble.

Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs Fellowship at Brown University. Du Bois Institute Fellowship at Harvard University Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard University Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University San Francisco Writers' Grotto Fellowship Montalvo Arts Center Lucas Artists Fellowship Visiting Assistant Professor in English and Creative Writing at University of Houston Ĭreative Writing Assistant Professor at SFSU Ĭreative Writing Visiting Faculty at MIT Ĭreative Writing Faculty at Harvard UniversityĬreative Writing MFA Program at CUNY's Hunter College Īssistant Professor in the English Department at Vanderbilt University Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa Visiting Professor of Creative Writing in the MFA Program of Creative Writing at Texas State University Ĭreative Writing Faculty at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at San Jose State University. Writer-in-Residence at the Tulane University English Department Creative Writing Program The New Yorker magazine's '20 under 40' luminary fiction writers. The Empty Facts of the Breonna Taylor DecisionĬommonwealth Club of California Award ĥ under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation Īmerica's Best Young Novelists by Granta When Is ‘Civility’ a Duty, and When Is It a Trap? News of an ‘Outrage’ Used to Mean Something Very, Very Different What to Expect When You're Expecting Fascism It's Beyoncé's World and We're Just Living In It I want Obama to be daily proof that race is no barrier The Finishing Party: ZZ Packer's Writing Group King's Refrigerator': Thinking Outside the Icebox New Stories from the South: The Year's Best ġ00 Years of the Best American Short Stories She has been regularly contributing to The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker. I thought to justify my interest I had better write about them.' A short excerpt from the novel was published in The New Yorker magazine's '20 under 40' issue. You don't hear much about blacks in the West and I became really fascinated by them. Packer is currently working on a novel set during Reconstruction in the aftermath of the Civil War: 'The subject is the Buffalo Soldiers blacks who left the South, Louisiana in this case, and traveled to the West. This short story collection is brimming with characters who are striving to find themselves, to understand themselves, and to survive', commented Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Colson Whitehead. 'ZZ Packer’s Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is taught in creative writing courses across the country and with good reason. As Publishers Weekly put it, 'this debut short story collection is getting the highest of accolades from the New York Times, Harper's, the New Yorker and most every other branch of the literary criticism tree.'

Her short story in the issue became the title story in her collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Her work was first published in the Debut Fiction issue of The New Yorker in 2000. Her graduate work included an MA at Johns Hopkins University in 1995 and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop of the University of Iowa in 1999, where she was mentored by James Alan McPherson.

Packer attended Yale University, where she received her BA in 1994. Packer is a 1990 graduate of Seneca High School, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was recognized as a talented writer at an early age, publishing in Seventeen at the age of 19. 'ZZ' was a childhood nickname her given name is Zuwena. She is primarily known for her works of short fiction.īorn in Chicago, Illinois, Packer grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and Louisville, Kentucky. Zuwena 'ZZ' Packer (born January 12, 1973) is an American writer. ZZ Packer at the 2009 Texas Book Festival.

Z z packer drinking coffee elsewhere