Garnett Kilberg Cohen

Garnett Kilberg Cohen received her B.A., magna cum laude, with honors in English Literature from the University of Cincinnati and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. From 1994 until 2005, she served as the Chairperson of the Department of English at Columbia College Chicago, where she has taught for over 20 years. Prior to assuming the chairpersonship, Garnett directed the college Writing Center. In 2007, she was named one of a Distinguished Artist at Columbia College Chicago  or a period of two years. She teaches both literature and writing courses.

FICTION:  Garnett Kilberg Cohen's most recent awards include the 2004 Crazyhorse National Fiction Prize for her short story, "Second Sight"; the Lawrence Foundation Prize from Michigan Quarterly Review for "Bad News," the best story to appear in the journal in 2003 calendar year; and four awards from the Illinois Council of the Arts, two literary awards for stories that appeared in Illinois Literary magazines, a 2006 finalist fellowship, and a 2001 Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist's Fellowship for prose of $7,000.  Her short stories have appeared in many publications, including American Fiction, Ontario Review, TriQuarterly, The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Literary Review, Other Voices, Descant, The Roanoke Review, and The Nebraska Review. Her first collection of short stories, Lost Women, Banished Souls, was published by the University of Missouri Press in 1996.

POETRY:  Garnett published a chapbook of poetry, Passion Tour (Finishing Line Press), in 2005. She has also published poetry in two anthologies, Dorothy Parker's Elbow (Warner Books) and A More Perfect Union (St. Martin's Press), as well as in many journals such as Tulane Review, Mid-American
Poetry Review, Calyx, The Maryland Review.

NONFICTION, EDITORIAL & OTHER:  She has published numerous pieces of nonfiction. Most recently her essay, "Out of Ohio: The Truth About the Truth" appeared in the special 2006 Creative Nonfiction issue of The Antioch Review and her essay, "Flight of My Parents' Memory" appeared in The Briar Cliff Review.  A former fiction editor of The Pennsylvania Review and a former Editor-in-Chief of The South Loop Review, Garnett is currently the Review Editor of Another Chicago Magazine and the Fiction Editor of Hotel Amerika. She has had multiple residencies at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Ragdale Foundation. She regularly writes reviews for Another Chicago Magazine, and has also published reviews in Prairie Schooner, Court Green, and the Alabama Literary Review.  She has been an invited judge or evaluator in several creative writing contests, most notably the WBEZ Public Radio Stories on Stage Competition and the Drue Heinz Prize.

Garnett has also worked as both a newspaper reporter and an advertising account executive.

Office Location: 300-Z, 3rd floor, 33 E. Congress

Office Phone: 312-369-8102.

Email: gkilberg-cohen@colum.edu

Mailing Address:
Garnett Kilberg Cohen
Department of English 
Columbia College of Chicago 
600 So. Michigan Avenue 
Chicago, IL 60605