Announcing Afternoon Creative Nonfiction/Memoir Seminar Instructor—Eileen Cronin

Eileen Cronin

Eileen Cronin grew up in Cincinnati during the 1960s and 70s, when television was still new and children used their imaginations to create games, plays, and other entertainment. Her family, with its eleven athletic and engaging kids, lived in a neighborhood packed with other Catholic families. As Eileen was a middle child, she learned quickly that she needed to compete for a place in the crowd. This task was complicated by the fact that she was born, inexplicably, with legs that ended at about the knee. Eileen found her place among friends in an all-girl Catholic high school with whom she enjoyed parties, dating, and inventing pranks. Her favorite memories include skinny dipping on summer nights with girlfriends and imagining herself an elusive mermaid. Through poetry and short story writing, Eileen found her voice. Eileen's fiction has been published in literary magazines; she's won the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society’s competition and the Washington Writing Prize in short fiction. Her essays have also been published in literary journals, and one of her personal essays was published as a notable essay in Best American Essays. Her debut memoir, Mermaid, about her struggles through “the eyes of a mermaid,” was published in 2014 by W.W. Norton & Co. to great acclaim, and was listed in the February issue of Oprah's "O" magazine as one of "10 titles to pick up now." Learn more about Eileen at http://www.eileencronin.com/