Chelsea Bieker holds an MFA from Portland State University. She is a recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship, and her work has been published in The Normal School, The Collagist, The Portland Review, and others. She currently lives in Portland, OR, with her husband where she teaches undergraduate writing courses.
At MacDowell, Bieker completed the first draft of her novel and moved into the revision process before she left. The novel is set in the rural Central Valley of California on a raisin farm, and later in present day Fresno. It follows Daisy, a runaway, who is adopted by foster parents who put her in beauty pageants, moving into her abusive and captivating relationship with her talent manager. The novel explores themes of feminine beauty, grief, and trauma.
