People like Claire Vaye Watkins

Claire Vaye Watkins (born April 9, 1984) is an American author and academic.

Her book of short stories Battleborn (Riverhead Books, 2012), won The Story Prize, among other awards. In 2012 the National Book Foundation named her a "5 under 35" honoree. Of her parents' influence on her award-winning collection, Watkins has said, “My father’s story is more in the collective subconscious but my mom’s is closer to the project.” In 2014 Watkins was the recipient of the Guggenheim Award.

Her debut novel, Gold Fame Citrus, was published in 2015. Watkins currently teaches creative writing at the University of California, Irvine.

Claire Vaye Watkins was born in Bishop, California in 1984. She is the daughter of Martha Watkins, described by Claire as “this incredible dynamo, a great bullshitter", and Paul Watkins, a former member of the Manson Family and a close collaborator of Charles Manson. Claire Watkins was raised in the Mojave Desert, first in Tecopa, California and then across the state line in Pahrump, Nevada. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Nevada, Reno and her Master of Fine Arts from Ohio State University where she was a Presidential fellow. Watkins is currently a faculty member at the University of California, Irvine, where she teaches creative writing. She is also on faculty at Bennington Writing Seminars, the M.F.A. program at Bennington College. Previously, she has taught as a visiting assistant professor at Princeton University, an assistant professor at Bucknell University, and an assistant professor at the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program.