Mia Bailey is an artist and writer. She received a B.A. in comparative religions from SOAS at the University of London, a graduate fine arts degree in painting from the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany, and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Maytag Fellow. She was born in Bangkok, Thailand, grew up in Australia, Canada, France, and Japan, and holds both Australian and German citizenships.
Her writing has been anthologized in Strangers in Paris: New Writing inspired by the City of Light (Tightrope Books Canada, 2011). Her visual art has been exhibited in Germany, France, Switzerland, Australia, and Korea, and she has received grants and fellowships from the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, the Cité des Arts Paris, and the Audiovision and Multimedia Commission Basel.
While in residence, Mia completed a fourth and final revision of her first novel, The Institute of Ordinary Light. The novel was begun in 2009 and has been supported by both a Maytag Fellowship and a Richard Guthrie Memorial Fellowship from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.