Denise Emanuel Clemen has worked as an art model, an au pair in Paris, a merchant of her own blood plasma, and as an assembly-line worker in a factory where she became expert at assembling toy manure spreaders. Her fiction and essays have been selected for Human Parts on Medium.com, in the anthology “Only Light Can Do That” (PEN Center USA) Berkeley Fiction Review, Superstition Review, Georgetown Review (including an honorable mention for their prize), Delmarva Review, New Plains Review, Sand Hill Review, Literary Mama, Under the Sun, and many others. She’s received fellowships to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Ragdale Foundation, and was an Auvillar fellow in France in 2009. Denise has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Nebraska. Her memoir, “Birth Mother,” was published by SheBooks in 2014. She can be found online at http://leavingdivorceville and currently lives in Minneapolis where she make and marbles paper, binds books, and makes collages, boxes, and zines. Her artists residencies include Casa Lü Sur in Mexico City which culminated in her exhibition, “Saints and Sorrows,” and three Kolaj Institute Residencies in Scotland.
Follow me on Medium
cv
Education and Training
University of Nebraska, M.F.A. in Creative Writing, 2010
UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, 2005-2008
College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota, B.A. in Humanities & Theater Arts, 1974
Fellowships & Awards
Pushcarts Prize nominations in 2020 and 2022
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2011, Fall 2017
Vermont Studio Center, February 2009, March 2018
Semi-Finalist, River Teeth, 2018
Semi-Finalist, Penelope Niven Non-Fiction Award/Salem Center for Women Writers, 2011
Astra Writing in Greece with Meredith Hall, 2009 & 2010
Squaw Valley Writers, 2006 & 2010
The Ragdale Foundation, November 2009
Auvillar Fellow: Moulin á Nef, France Fall 2009
Tin House Conference with Abigail Thomas, 2007
Georgetown Review Prize, honorable mention, Spring 2006
American Pen Women Prize, honorable mention, 2006
Stories and Essays
Under the Sun, Spring 2021 & 2020 & 2022 (Pushcart nominations in 2020 &2022) ; The Revolution, November 2019; Lumina Magazine, 2018, Superstition Review, 2016; Serving House Journal, 2016; Berkeley Fiction Review, 2016; Sand Hill Review, 2016; Escape, short-short in Only Light Can Do That, Pen Center USA, 2016; My Face in the Darkness, essay in Mothering Through the Darkness, She Writes Press, 2015; Knee Jerk, August 2014; Fiction Fix, Fall, 2014; Chagrin River Review, Fall 2014; Delmarva Review, Fall 2014, New Plains Review; Fall 2014; Work Magazine, July 2011; The Rattling Wall, Spring, 2011; Holding Him Softly, essay in Dream of Things Anthology, Saying Goodbye, 2010; The Mom Egg, Fall 2009 & Spring 2010; Literary Mama, February 2009; Two Hawks Quarterly, November 2008; The Georgetown Review, Spring 2006
Books
Birth Mother, Shebooks, 2014
ARTISTS WORKSHOPS & RESIDENCIES
Casa Lü Sur, Mexico City 2025
Kolaj Institute; Sanquhar, Scotland 2024, 2023
Annette Luycx/Iris Art Center; Afidnes, Greece 2023
Cave Paper; Minneapolis, MN 2019-2020
Humberto Batista; Oaxaca, Mexico 2017
GALLERY SHOWS & PUBLICATIONS
Kolaj Institute Gallery/Joy and Grief; New Orleans, LA 2025
Covet Gallery/Wild Thing; Oceanside, CA 2024
Laguna Gallery/Botanical; Laguna Beach, CA 2024
HMVC Gallery/Harmony and Diversity; New York City 2024
MVA Gallery/The Essence of a Woman; Bethlehem, PA 2024
Under the Sun literary magazine