About Arya

Arya Samuelson is a writer, editor, educator, and somatic practitioner-in-training in Western Massachusetts. She is the winner of New Ohio Review’s Nonfiction Prize, Lascaux Review’s Nonfiction Prize, and CutBank’s Montana Prize in Nonfiction awarded by Cheryl Strayed. Her essay, “I Am No Beekeeper” was selected as Notable in Best American Essays 2024. Other essays and stories have been published in Fourth Genre, Bellevue Literary Review, Columbia Journal, Gertrude, and elsewhere. Arya holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College, and her work has received support from Marble House, Virginia Creative Colony for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and Juniper Summer Writing Institute. Arya teaches and works as a developmental editor and creative coach to help writers unearth the deeper story. She is currently writing a memoir, a novel, and a book of essays.

photo by Ace Lehner


  • Arya Samuelson is a writer, editor, and teacher currently based in Northampton, MA. She was awarded New Ohio Review’s 2023 Non-Fiction Prize (judged by Barie Jean Borrich), the 2024 Lascaux Prize in Nonfiction, and CutBank’s Montana Prize in Non-Fiction (judged by Cheryl Strayed.)Her essay, “I Am No Beekeeper” was selected as Notable in Best American Essays 2024. Arya has been a semi-finalist for nonfiction contests by Black Warrior Review, CRAFT, Ninth Letter, and Sonora Review. Her work appears, or is forthcoming, in Fourth Genre,Bellevue Literary Review,Columbia Journal, New Delta Review, Gertrude, The Manifest-Station, Stone Pacific Zine, Half Mystic, The Millions, and the Brevity Blog.

    Arya graduated from Mills College with an MFA in Prose and has attended (or will soon attend) residencies at Marble House Project, Ragdale Foundation, VCCA, Vermont Studio Center, Byrdcliffe Woodstock, Sundress Academy for the Arts, and Wassaic Project. She has studied at Lidia Yuknavitch’s online school of Corporeal Writing since 2017 and is proud to be part of the Corporeal Coven.  Arya is currently working on a novel, a memoir, and a book of essays. 

    In the past, Arya has worked as an advocate for domestic violence survivors, a Supportive Housing Specialist for homeless adults with mental illness, a coordinator at a synagogue, and a grant writer for documentaries and social justice organizations. She is on the Board of Directors for Perugia Press. When she isn’t writing or working, she is making herbal medicines, singing Eastern European choral music, or scouting adorable dogs. She is currently in training to become a Somatic Experiencing practitioner.

  • I am a writer dedicated to unearthing the stories of the body and transforming them into art. I’m fascinated by how our bodies store memories that connect to our deepest wounds, shames, and desires, and how we can transmute these memories into stories that offer healing and connection. While intimate and visceral, my writing is always in dialogue with the larger social forces that shape my embodiment, such as reproductive rights, environmental justice, Jewish trauma, queerness, and feminism. I write both fiction and nonfiction, often straddling the line between both.

    I'm obsessed with connecting disparate things and creating music from dissonance. My work often braids themes of grief, desire, and joy, and weaves together topics—such as body-based narratives and ecological systems—revealing kinships between seemingly separate worlds.

    I'm driven by queerness as a mode of inquiry: exposing the lesser-told story, delighting in multiplicity, and stretching the poetics of form. My stories often write towards impossible questions and discover new possibilities from the reckoning. 

The Books that have Most Impacted my Writing:

Chronology of Water

Lidia Yuknavitch

As I Lay Dying

William Faukner

Body Work

Melissa Febos

Salvage the Bones

Jesmyn Ward

Sula

Toni Morrison

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

T Kira Madden

In the Dream House

Carmen Maria Machado

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

Sabrina Imbler

The Appointment

Herta Müller

Near to the Wild Heart

Clarice Lispector

The Man Who Could Move Clouds

Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Heavy

Kiese Laymon

photo by Ace Lehner