Described as “genre-busting” by Michael Miller of Time Out New York, Maggie Nelson is the author of eight books. Her nonfiction includes The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning, a work of art and cultural criticism which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Bluets, an unclassifiable prose work about the color blue, inspired by Goethe and Wittgenstein; The Red Parts: A Memoir, a work of autobiography and reportage about a 2005 homicide trial affecting the writer’s family; and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions, a work of art and literary criticism about women poets and painters associated with the New York School. Nelson’s 2005 mixed-genre book, Jane: A Murder, told the story of the 1969 murder of her mother’s sister. She is also the author of three collections of lyric poetry. Nelson holds a PhD in English Literature from CUNY. In 2005, she moved from New York City to join the faculty at CalArts, where she has taught a wide variety of courses in art, literature, writing, theory and cultural studies. Nelson received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2016.