Lara Palmqvist
Originally from New Mexico, Lara Palmqvist is also shaped by over a decade spent living in the rural Midwest. She earned her B.A. in biology and American studies from St. Olaf College, where she was awarded an REU fellowship from the National Science Foundation to study the relationship between native pollinators and farmland corridors. She also earned a M.Th. in religion in peace and conflict from Uppsala University in Sweden as a Rotary Global Grant Scholar. Her writing has been honored with residencies and awards from Ox-Bow School of Art, Saari Residence in Finland, Svalbard Galleri in Norway, and the Sozopol Fiction Seminars in Bulgaria. Winner of the 2022 Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, she was also a finalist for the 2023 Story Foundation Prize. She’s the grateful recipient of supportive fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the U.S. Fulbright Commission, through which she taught creative writing in Ukraine. She’s also worked as a strawberry farmer, horse trainer, grocer, writing tutor, scientific copyeditor for the University of Kansas, and in Earth science communications with Carleton College’s Science Education Resource Center. These various roles, along with her commitment to cross-cultural exchange, inform her enduring interest in celebrating the natural world and depicting a broad range of humanity in her work. She’s currently based in Texas, where she’s working toward her MFA in fiction and screenwriting at the Michener Center for Writers at UT-Austin.