About

McGowan’s stories have all of the ferocity and precision of her fellow Georgian, Flannery O’Connor, but McGowan is more compassionate. And more hip.—Robin Lippincott

Cate McGowan writes across genres, crafting fiction, poetry, and essays that explore threshold moments and the odd beauty of everyday life. Her recent books include the poetry collection Sacrificial Steel (Driftwood Press, 2025), winner of the Driftwood Editors’ Pick Poetry Prize, and Writing Is Revision (Brill, 2025), an essay collection. Earlier work includes the novel These Lowly Objects (Gold Wake Press) and the story collection True Places Never Are, winner of the Moon City Press Short Fiction Award and a finalist for the Lascaux Prize. Her shorter work has appeared or is forthcoming in Flash Fiction International (Norton), Glimmer Train, North American Review, Shenandoah, SmokeLong Quarterly, Tahoma Literary Review, Trampset, Citron Review, Stonecoast Review, Chestnut Review, and Crab Orchard Review.

McGowan—affectionately called “McG” by her students—holds an M.F.A., a Ph.D., and a recent M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Florida with her husband and a willful assortment of pets; she misses her home state of Georgia.