Born in New Delhi, poet and novelist Monica Ferrell earned a B.A. at Harvard University and an M.F.A. at Columbia University. In a 2008 interview for Sarabande Press, Ferrell discussed the role of uncertainty in her work, stating, “I’m trying to let something that wants to come into being do so—poetry as uncovering, rather than invention or rhetoric, and a form of devotion and service.”
Ferrell’s debut poetry collection, Beasts for the Chase (2008), was chosen by Jane Hirshfield for the Kathryn A. Morton Poetry Prize. Ferrell’s novel, The Answer Is Always Yes (2008), was named a Borders Original Voices selection and was one of Booklist’s Top Ten First Novels of 2008. Her honors include a Discovery/The Nation prize and a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. Ferrell lives in Brooklyn and teaches in the creative writing program at SUNY-Purchase.
