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Name: J.R. Dawson
Pronouns: She/They
Degrees: BFA in Playwriting and English Literature (DePaul University, 2010), MS in Secondary Education (University of Nebraska Omaha, 2013), MFA in Popular Fiction (Stonecoast, 2016)
Twitter: @J_R_Dawson
Website: www.jrdawsonwriter.com
Email: jrdawsonwriter@gmail.com
Pronouns: She/They
Degrees: BFA in Playwriting and English Literature (DePaul University, 2010), MS in Secondary Education (University of Nebraska Omaha, 2013), MFA in Popular Fiction (Stonecoast, 2016)
Twitter: @J_R_Dawson
Website: www.jrdawsonwriter.com
Email: jrdawsonwriter@gmail.com
Bios of varying length
her 25 Words
Dawson can be seen in F&SF, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, Lightspeed, and others. The First Bright Thing is her first novel.
50 words
Dawson is a writer and educator with shorter works in places such as F&SF, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, and Lightspeed. Living in Omaha with a loving spouse and three dogs, Dawson works with assorted nonprofits that bring performing arts to children in the Midwest. The First Bright Thing is her first novel.
100 words
Dawson is a writer and educator with shorter works in places such as F&SF, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, and Lightspeed. Dawson lives in Omaha with a loving spouse and three dogs. Having earned a BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul and an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast, Dawson works as a teaching artist with assorted nonprofits that bring the power of the performing arts to children in the Midwest. The First Bright Thing is her first novel.
Long form bio
Dawson was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and started writing at four years old, thanks to Grandma. Grandma folded stacks of paper and stapled them down the middle. She told Dawson to write and illustrate anything they wanted into their own little books. This meant the start of Rainbowland, Halloween Friends, and Unicorns (don’t be fooled by the title, it was a lot like a grittier version of the Power Rangers).
Later on, Dawson’s mother joined in and bought Dawson a gigantic notebook and said to fill it up. So heading into fourth grade, Dawson started writing small novels and never stopped. One story was based on a dream: a little girl, kept hidden by her father because she had a magic power to turn anything she imagined into a full-fledged illusion. Then one summer night, young Dawson went to the circus and saw a trapeze swinger. So out came a paragraph about the trapeze swinger, and then it was immediately lost. But all of these stories, even Rainbowland, was about a found family, a place where misfit toys could come together and learn from each other.
By sophomore year of high school, there were a bunch of writing projects clogging up a bunch of hard drives. After graduating from Omaha Central, Dawson shot off to Chicago to study playwriting at The Theatre School at DePaul University. Sometimes, Dawson would skip classes to explore the city with a friend and scribble down their book projects (and yes, the classes were made up … mostly). As the years kept on, there came a realization while there was a love for theatre, there was a bigger love for books. So Dawson declared an English major during senior year and founded the DePaul Writer’s Guild, a writing group that brought together all writers from all majors and backgrounds around campus. The Writer’s Guild is still active on campus, over ten years later.
After college, Dawson moved back to Omaha and become a high school drama teacher. Three weeks after moving back, true love struck. The sort of once in a thousand years kind of love. The two were engaged within six months, though graduate studies would keep them apart for four years. Dawson’s amazing spouse promised, “I’m going to do everything in my power to make your life exactly what you want it to be.” And they meant it, because they’re amazing and giving. So they went off to law school, and Dawson kept teaching. And then Grandma died.
Years passed, high school musicals and plays opened and closed, papers were graded, and in 2014, Dawson entered the Stonecoast MFA program. In 2015, there was marriage and they backpacked through Europe.
Two months before graduation, Dawson took a hike in Iowa’s Loess Hills and imagined a magical circus that attracted all the oddballs of Omaha to run away with it. Dawson wrote a few words, remembering the girl from a dream a long time ago, the one who could make illusions come out of her fingers. It mixed with a memory of a trapeze swinger, and unexplored, silent pain from years before.
In 2017, J.R. Dawson’s first professional publication hit (“The Legendary Legend of the Darkly’s Slayer,” Mothership Zeta). Then another (“Marley and Marley,” F&SF).
Life in Omaha is full of three dogs, four Disney World trips, friends and great reads. Dawson currently works as a teaching artist with Nebraska Writers Collective, The Rose Theater, and other theatre and creative writing nonprofits. A teaching artist’s main job is to lead outreach programs that teach students how to find their voice and express themselves through art.
Because telling our own stories is a way that we get to say to the world, “This is who I am. This is what happened. No one has allowed me to say it out loud. But now I scream it.”
Dawson can be seen in F&SF, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, Lightspeed, and others. The First Bright Thing is her first novel.
50 words
Dawson is a writer and educator with shorter works in places such as F&SF, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, and Lightspeed. Living in Omaha with a loving spouse and three dogs, Dawson works with assorted nonprofits that bring performing arts to children in the Midwest. The First Bright Thing is her first novel.
100 words
Dawson is a writer and educator with shorter works in places such as F&SF, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, and Lightspeed. Dawson lives in Omaha with a loving spouse and three dogs. Having earned a BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul and an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast, Dawson works as a teaching artist with assorted nonprofits that bring the power of the performing arts to children in the Midwest. The First Bright Thing is her first novel.
Long form bio
Dawson was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and started writing at four years old, thanks to Grandma. Grandma folded stacks of paper and stapled them down the middle. She told Dawson to write and illustrate anything they wanted into their own little books. This meant the start of Rainbowland, Halloween Friends, and Unicorns (don’t be fooled by the title, it was a lot like a grittier version of the Power Rangers).
Later on, Dawson’s mother joined in and bought Dawson a gigantic notebook and said to fill it up. So heading into fourth grade, Dawson started writing small novels and never stopped. One story was based on a dream: a little girl, kept hidden by her father because she had a magic power to turn anything she imagined into a full-fledged illusion. Then one summer night, young Dawson went to the circus and saw a trapeze swinger. So out came a paragraph about the trapeze swinger, and then it was immediately lost. But all of these stories, even Rainbowland, was about a found family, a place where misfit toys could come together and learn from each other.
By sophomore year of high school, there were a bunch of writing projects clogging up a bunch of hard drives. After graduating from Omaha Central, Dawson shot off to Chicago to study playwriting at The Theatre School at DePaul University. Sometimes, Dawson would skip classes to explore the city with a friend and scribble down their book projects (and yes, the classes were made up … mostly). As the years kept on, there came a realization while there was a love for theatre, there was a bigger love for books. So Dawson declared an English major during senior year and founded the DePaul Writer’s Guild, a writing group that brought together all writers from all majors and backgrounds around campus. The Writer’s Guild is still active on campus, over ten years later.
After college, Dawson moved back to Omaha and become a high school drama teacher. Three weeks after moving back, true love struck. The sort of once in a thousand years kind of love. The two were engaged within six months, though graduate studies would keep them apart for four years. Dawson’s amazing spouse promised, “I’m going to do everything in my power to make your life exactly what you want it to be.” And they meant it, because they’re amazing and giving. So they went off to law school, and Dawson kept teaching. And then Grandma died.
Years passed, high school musicals and plays opened and closed, papers were graded, and in 2014, Dawson entered the Stonecoast MFA program. In 2015, there was marriage and they backpacked through Europe.
Two months before graduation, Dawson took a hike in Iowa’s Loess Hills and imagined a magical circus that attracted all the oddballs of Omaha to run away with it. Dawson wrote a few words, remembering the girl from a dream a long time ago, the one who could make illusions come out of her fingers. It mixed with a memory of a trapeze swinger, and unexplored, silent pain from years before.
In 2017, J.R. Dawson’s first professional publication hit (“The Legendary Legend of the Darkly’s Slayer,” Mothership Zeta). Then another (“Marley and Marley,” F&SF).
Life in Omaha is full of three dogs, four Disney World trips, friends and great reads. Dawson currently works as a teaching artist with Nebraska Writers Collective, The Rose Theater, and other theatre and creative writing nonprofits. A teaching artist’s main job is to lead outreach programs that teach students how to find their voice and express themselves through art.
Because telling our own stories is a way that we get to say to the world, “This is who I am. This is what happened. No one has allowed me to say it out loud. But now I scream it.”