Keija Parssinen
Saudi-born, Texas-raised author Keija Parssinen is a graduate of Princeton University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote fellow. Her first novel, The Ruins of Us, won a Michener-Copernicus Award and was long-listed for the Chautauqua Prize. Her second novel, The Unraveling of Mercy Louis, was just released by Harper Books. The New York Times calls it “deliciously dark and sumptuously gothic,” and it was named a Must-Read by Ploughshares, Bustle, Bookish, Pop Sugar, Style Bistro and more. Keija’s writing has appeared in two Lonely Planet travel-writing anthologies, Salon, The New Delta Review, Five Chapters, Marie Claire, and elsewhere. In the fall she will join the faculty of the University of Tulsa as an Assistant Professor of English.