formal credentials

Katey Schultz is the author of Flashes of War, which the Daily Beast praised as an “ambitious and fearless” collection, and Still Come Home, a novel, both published by Loyola University Maryland. Honors for her work include North Carolina’s Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, the Linda Flowers Literary Award, Doris Betts Fiction Prize, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year award, gold and silver medals from the Military Writers Society of America, the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year award, five Pushcart nominations, a nomination to Best American Short Stories, National Indies Excellence recognition, and writing fellowships in eight states. She lives in Celo, North Carolina, and is the founder of Maximum Impact, a transformative mentoring service for creative writers that has been recognized by both CNBC and the What Works Network. 

Books

Still Come Home (Apprentice House Press, 2019)

Still Come Home is personal, global, tender, brutal, and deeply introspective … one of the finest works of fiction yet to come out of the Long Wars.” (Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk)

Flashes of War (Loyola University Maryland, 2013)

“This is a brilliant, unsettling, and disturbingly beautiful book…Writing of this degree of commitment and integrity is living evidence of the power of fiction to tell the truth about reality.” –Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya (The Watch)

Flashes of War is written in “a deceptively minimalist style that out-Carvers Carver and exposes the traumas of war without any breast-beating outrage.” (Los Angeles Review of Books)

“When I requested an early review copy, my interest mostly was to see how off-base a creative writing dilettante could go in her presumption to tell the story of soldiers at war. Well, I’m the jerk, because she did a better job than many veteran writers I’ve read, and I’ve read a lot.” –Nathan Webster (New York Times contributor)

Bite: An Anthology of Flash Fiction (Trachodon Publishing, 2012)

“In the editor’s note, Katey Schultz points out that to her, the best flash fiction ‘mark[s] a moment in the story with such vivid texture, the reader has no choice but to feel it right between the eyes.’ And that is a great description of all of the pieces included in this collection. In each one, you can pinpoint the exact moment where it twists, revealing a deeper meaning, a hidden truth, or a surprising plot change.” (New Pages)

Education

MFA Creative Writing, Pacific University, 2008.
Montessori Lead Adolescent Teacher Certification (grades 6-9), IGS/MEPI, 2005.
BA Philosophy, Whitman College, 2001.

Readings & Lectures

Formal lectures and workshops by invitation at: United States Air Force Academy, Washington College, Rose O’Neill Literary House, F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival, National Writers Series, Columbia College Chicago, SUNY-Binghamton, Carroll University, Oakland University, AWP Minneapolis, STORY Week Festival of Authors, Great Plains Writing Conference (South Dakota State University), Virginia Military Institute, Carolina Mountains Literary Festival, Haywood Community College, Friends of the Cumberland County Library, and more.

More than 70 public readings and lectures in Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Prizes & Awards

  • Still Come Home awarded Book of the Year for Indie Fiction from Chicago Writers Association, 2020
  • Still Come Home awarded North Carolina’s Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, 2020
  • Still Come Home awarded a silver medal from Military Writers Society of America, 2020
  • Still Come Home received finalist recognition from National Indies Excellence, 2020
  • Still Come Home awarded INDIES Book of the Year in Adult General Fiction from Foreward Reviews, 2019
  • “My Brothers and the Moon” selected as Winner for the Hypertext Magazine Fiction Contest and nominated for Best American Short Stories
  • “Wait for Me” selected as Honorable Mention for The Missouri Review’s esteemed Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s Prize
  • “Something Coming” awarded the Doris Betts Fiction Prize
  • Flashes of War awarded INDIES Book of the Year in War & Military Fiction from Foreword Reviews, 2014
  • Flashes of War awarded Gold Medal in Literary Fiction from Military Writers Society of America, 2013
  • “The Last Thing They Might Have Seen” selected as 2015 Finalist for Best Small Fictions
  • “Paddy the Albino” selected as 2016 Finalist for Best Small Fictions
  • “Paddy the Albino” and “What the Water Teaches” nominated for the 2016 Pushcart Prize
  • “The Last Thing They Might Have Seen” and “Stop Looking at Me Like That” nominated for the 2015 Pushcart Prize
  • “The Last Thing They Might Have Seen” selected as 2015 Finalist for Best Small Fictions
  • Shortlisted for International One-Page Fiction Prize for “While the Rest of America’s at the Mall,” 2010
  • 1st place winner of Press 53 Short Story Award for “My Father Calls Me Pequeña,” 2010
  • 1st place winner of Whispering Prairie Press Flash Fiction Contest for “The Last Thing They Might Have Seen,” 2010
  • Linda Flowers Literary Prize awarded by North Carolina Humanities Council, 2009

Teaching

  • Guest Lecturer, Western Connecticut State University MFA in Writing, 2019-present
  • Faculty, Flatiron Writers Room, 2018-present
  • Faculty & Artistic Director, Interlochen College of Creative Arts, 2011-present
  • Guest Lecturer, Great Smokies Writing Program, UNC-Asheville, Fall 2014, Spring 2016
  • Visiting Writer, Solstice MFA in Writing at Pine Manor College, July Residency, 2014
  • Emerging Writer, Randolph College, Spring 2013
  • Visiting Instructor, 49 Alaska Writing Center, February 2012, March 2016
  • Additional teaching experience at Blue Mountain Community College (Writing 122), Fishtrap (Eastern Oregon Writer-in-Residence), and Interlochen Arts Academy (Writer-in-Residence).

Editing

Ten years experience in editing and publishing, including senior editorial work for: Main Street Rag Publishing Company, TRACHODON Magazine, Memoir (and) Journal, Our Stories, and Silk Road. This work included direct contact with submissions, final editorial decisions, and written introductions for three fiction anthologies: Dots on a Map (Main Street Rag, 2009), Coming Home (Main Street Rag, 2010), and Bite: An Anthology of Flash Fiction (TRACHODON Publishing, 2012). Additional information: please inquire.

Residencies

  • Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN 2015-2019
  • Prairie Center of the Arts, Peoria, IL 2012
  • The Island Institute, Sitka, AK 2012
  • Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA 2011 & 2009
  • Madroño Ranch Artist Residency Program, Bandera, TX 2011
  • Jentel Foundation, Banner, WY 2010
  • Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, Southern Pines, NC 2010
  • Wrangell Mountains Center, McCarthy, AK 2009

Radio & Television

Radio interviews on NPR’s Morning Edition on WNCW, Michigan Writers on Interlochen Public Radio, Writer’s Anthology on Raven Radio, Write On on KFAI Minneapolis Public Radio, Lake Effect on WUWM Milwaukie Public Radio, WordPlay on Asheville FM, and more.

Flashes of War featured on NBC-affiliate WUPN 4&7 for The Writer’s Minute. Interviewed via Skype (and dubbed in Dari) for Tolo News, the #1 news source based in Kabul, Afghanistan that is broadcast around the world, for nightly news talk show “Farakhabar” (“Beyond News”).

Art Essays

More than 75 essays including 7 national cover stories featuring individual artists and their creative processes published in: American Ceramic Society, Ceramics Art & Perception, Ceramics Monthly, Contemporary Impressions, Metalsmith Magazine, Museo Arte Contempraneo de Puerto Rico (exhibition content), Surface Design Journal, Southern Arts Journal, and more.