Audrey Petty

Audrey Petty is a writer and educator. She writes fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. Her stories have been published in such journals as African American Review, StoryQuarterly, Callaloo, and The Massachusetts Review. Her poetry has been featured in Crab Orchard Review and Cimarron Review, and her essays have appeared in Saveur, ColorLines, The Southern Review, Oxford American, Cornbread Nation 4, Gravy, and the Best Food Writing anthology. She is the editor of High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing (Voice of Witness/McSweeney's).

Audrey has been awarded a residency at the Hedgebrook Colony, the Richard Soref Scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Tennessee Williams Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers' Conference. Her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and she's also been the recipient of fellowships and grants from the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council and the Hewlett Foundation.

INTERVIEWS


 

McSweeney's Internet Tendency
A Q&A with Audrey Petty, Editor of the New Voice of Witness Book High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing

 
 

Harper's Blog
High Rise Stories: Audrey Petty on the history of Chicago public housing, the intimacy of oral histories, and reconstructing demolished communities

 
 

Tavis Smiley Radio Show
In the new book, "High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing," Audrey Petty has compiled 12 narratives from former residents of recently-demolished public housing. Petty talks to us from Chicago with Sonovia Marie Petty, a former resident of the ABLA Homes and one of the book’s 12 narrators.
Listen below. Interview begins at the 25:00 mark.

 
 

REVIEWS