Lee Upton

2026 Semi-Finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, Lee Upton is the author of books of poetry, fiction, essays, and literary criticism. Her literary mystery, WRONGFUL, in which writers behave badly at two literary festivals, appeared in May 2025. Her comic novel, TABITHA, GET UP, was launched in May 2024 and is a current semi-finalist for the Thurber Prize. Her seventh collection of poetry, THE DAY EVERY DAY IS, received the Saturnalia Prize and appeared in spring 2023. Her second short story collection, Visitations, was a recipient of the Kirkus star and was listed in “Best of the Indies 2017” and “Best Indie Books for December” by Kirkus. The collection was also a finalist in the short story collections category of the American Book Fest Best Book Awards

Her first short story collection, The Tao of Humiliation, a finalist for the Paterson Prize, received the BOA Short Fiction Prize. Kirkus selected the collection for their listing of “The Best Books of 2014,” one of eleven books in the subcategory of short stories that included collections by a slate of international authors, among them Paul Theroux, Tove Jansson, and Hilary Mantel.

Her awards include the Lyric Poetry Award and The Writer/Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America; the Pushcart Prize; the National Poetry Series Award; and the Miami University Novella Award. Her collection of essays, Swallowing the Sea: On Writing & Ambition Boredom Purity & Secrecy, received ForeWord Review's Book of the Year Award in the category of books about writing. Her poetry has appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic, Poetry, and other journals as well as in three editions of Best American Poetry.

On Lee Upton's literary mystery, WRONGFUL:

“The characters in Wrongful have questions—lots of them—and Upton delivers the answers. In good time. After

leading us on a merry chase over the roads of professional jealousy pockmarked with Schadenfreude and a generous

dollop of snark. All the reasons you read a novel for, really. The answers Upton finally delivers give rise to more—

deeper—questions, which I am hoping will fuel a sequel.”

Bathsheba Monk, author of the Swanson Herbinko Mystery Series

“Nimble, funny, playful, versatile Lee Upton has long been one of my favorite writers, and what a multilayered treat

Wrongful is. Here we have all the usual joys of Upton’s prose—clever dialogue; great tonal range; psychological

subtlety; a wit that’s razor-sharp without ever feeling mean-spirited—in service of a well-made and engrossing

murder mystery. Is there any genre she can’t master, anything she can’t do?”

Michael Griffith, author of Trophy and Bibliophilia

“This book is addictive. Lee Upton has created a world of characters you won’t want to say goodbye to. Her writing is

sharp, surprising, and entertaining. I love Wrongful for its humor and wisdom, but also for the characters that keep

you guessing.”

Olivia Clare Friedman, author of Here Lies

On Lee Upton's comic novel, TABITHA, GET UP:

“For starters, Lee Upton’s novel Tabitha, Get Up is funny—really, really funny. On top of that, narrator Tabitha’s clumsy, desperate, charming search for human connection—not to mention a paying gig—is also a serious look at whether it’s possible to bluff and hustle a life together. You’re going to love this book.”—David Ebenbach

“Tabitha, Get Up is another remarkable book by the irrepressible Lee Upton… Tabitha is a glorious piece of work: a biographer with a feverish mind and a long list of antagonists and an indomitable spirit and an unforgettable voice and major money problems. I wouldn’t want anyone to live her life, but I very much want everyone to read her book. It’s Lee Upton’s best, funniest, and most ingenious work of fiction yet. Which is to say, it’s the best, funniest, most ingenious work of fiction you’ll read this year, and most other years, too.”—Brock Clarke

“Lee Upton’s comely new novel, presents as a series of exquisite “Notes,” and thus a “Notebook,” a book of Notes, to self, to random others, to you who finds them…Riding herd, Upton wrangles a novel that writes itself and rights itself.—Michael Martone

“Tabitha lives! In Tabitha, Get Up, Lee Upton has created an ebullient, witty, ... and totally lovable character whose distinctive voice will stay with you long after you’ve closed the book. Smart, funny,… and a total joy!”—Iris Smyles

Formally the form is perfectly organic to this novel new novel, parts being greater than the sum of the whole, this map more detailed than the thing it represents, this round-up of resuscitation, reconstitution, and reply. Riding herd, Upton wrangles a novel that writes itself and rights itself.—Michael Martone

On Lee Upton’s VISITATIONS:

“The stories in Lee Upton’s Visitations remind me of those by the great Edith Pearlman: swift, rueful, erudite, moving, and full of wisdom. And very, very funny. I laughed, hard, while reading these stories, often at things that can’t be printed on the cover of a book. Which is just one of the many reasons why you should look inside.”

—Brock Clarke, author of The Happiest People in the World

“In these gorgeous stories Lee Upton writes with wicked wit and wild imagination. Her work is full of beautiful sentences and the best kind of surprises: unexpected swerves, uneasy alliances, wives who leave their husbands on their wedding night. Visitations is a wonderful collection.”

—Margot Livesey, author of Mercury and The Flight of Gemma Hardy

In Visitations, the inimitable Lee Upton spins myth and legend into enchanting and terrifying stories all her own. Hilarious and tragic (think Donald Antrim meets Rebecca Curtis), these stories grab you by the throat and don’t let go. Here, a mother fights a groundhog for her daughter’s flowers, a Magwitchian figure washes onto a beach and solicits a child’s help; two women suffer the existential abuse of experimental community theater. In one fine story, a character finds herself marked by her history “like getting a tattoo visible only to herself.” Reader, I implore you, let this magic book tattoo itself on you.

—David James Poissant, author of The Heaven of Animals