Selby Wynn Schwartz is the author of After Sappho (Galley Beggar Press), which was longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in Political Fiction, the James Tait Black Prize in Fiction, and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction; it has now been translated into eleven languages. She has received the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy in Rome as well as fellowships from the Bogliasco Foundation and the Dora Maar Cultural Center. Her first book, The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and Their Afterlives (University of Michigan Press), won the 2020 Sally Banes Prize from the American Society of Theatre Research and was a finalist for the Lambda Award in Nonfiction; her novella A Life in Chameleons (Reflex Press) received the 2021 Reflex Press Novella Award. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley.
Selected publications
BOOKS
After Sappho. Galley Beggar Press, 2022.
A Life in Chameleons. Reflex Press, 2023.
The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and Their Afterlives. University of Michigan Press, 2019.
CHAPTERS in ANTHOLOGIES
Choreographing solidarity: Non Una di Meno’s re-performances of Un violador en tu camino. In Italian Feminist Thought Today & Tomorrow: ed. Juliet Guzzetta & Graziella Parati. SUNY Press, forthcoming.
In the name of Destà: Artivism, corporeality, and ‘postcolonial pathways.’ In Intersectional Italy: ed. Caterina Romeo & Giulia Fabbri. Routledge, 2024.
Dalla Parte di Lei: A Transfeminist Translation for Alba De Céspedes. In Feminismo(s) y/en Traducción, ed. José Santaemilia. Editorial Comares, 2021.
ARTICLES
l3 protagonist: A Writer’s Perspective on Queer Feminist Translation. MediAzioni, forthcoming.
We’ll see you at the barre!”: Stretching Queer Sociality with Ballez. GPS: Global Performance Studies 4.1, 2021.
Very Queer Friends: Alba De Céspedes’ Dalla Parte Di Lei and Elena Ferrante’s La Vita Bugiarda Degli Adulti. Altrelettere, 2020.
LITERARY PUBLICATIONS
What Little We Know About Gab Sorère. The Hopkins Review Issue 19.4, forthcoming.
A Likeness. Perspectives. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jan 2026.
The Bureau of Thalassic Complaints. Roots-Routes: Magazine of Research on Visual Cultures Issue 50, Jan 2026.
Against the Flow: The Excursion of Nausicaa by Ethel Walker. Tate Etc. 60. Tate Museum, 2024.
Selby Wynn Schwartz is the author of After Sappho (Galley Beggar Press), which was longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in Political Fiction, the James Tait Black Prize in Fiction, and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction; it has now been translated into eleven languages. She has received the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy in Rome as well as fellowships from the Bogliasco Foundation and the Dora Maar Cultural Center. Her first book, The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and Their Afterlives (University of Michigan Press), won the 2020 Sally Banes Prize from the American Society of Theatre Research and was a finalist for the Lambda Award in Nonfiction; her novella A Life in Chameleons (Reflex Press) received the 2021 Reflex Press Novella Award. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley.
Selected publications
BOOKS
After Sappho. Galley Beggar Press, 2022.
A Life in Chameleons. Reflex Press, 2023.
The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and Their Afterlives. University of Michigan Press, 2019.
CHAPTERS in ANTHOLOGIES
Choreographing solidarity: Non Una di Meno’s re-performances of Un violador en tu camino. In Italian Feminist Thought Today & Tomorrow: ed. Juliet Guzzetta & Graziella Parati. SUNY Press, forthcoming.
In the name of Destà: Artivism, corporeality, and ‘postcolonial pathways.’ In Intersectional Italy: ed. Caterina Romeo & Giulia Fabbri. Routledge, 2024.
Dalla Parte di Lei: A Transfeminist Translation for Alba De Céspedes. In Feminismo(s) y/en Traducción, ed. José Santaemilia. Editorial Comares, 2021.
ARTICLES
l3 protagonist: A Writer’s Perspective on Queer Feminist Translation. MediAzioni, forthcoming.
We’ll see you at the barre!”: Stretching Queer Sociality with Ballez. GPS: Global Performance Studies 4.1, 2021.
Very Queer Friends: Alba De Céspedes’ Dalla Parte Di Lei and Elena Ferrante’s La Vita Bugiarda Degli Adulti. Altrelettere, 2020.
LITERARY PUBLICATIONS
What Little We Know About Gab Sorère. The Hopkins Review Issue 19.4, forthcoming.
A Likeness. Perspectives. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jan 2026.
The Bureau of Thalassic Complaints. Roots-Routes: Magazine of Research on Visual Cultures Issue 50, Jan 2026.
Against the Flow: The Excursion of Nausicaa by Ethel Walker. Tate Etc. 60. Tate Museum, 2024.