Arya Samuelson

Artist Statement

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 into stories that create new possibilities for healing. My writing is intimate and visceral, yet always in dialogue with the social forces that shape my embodiment, such as reproductive rights, environmental justice, Jewish trauma, queerness, and feminism. I'm obsessed with connecting disparate things and creating music from dissonance. My work 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.

My work is featured in all of these literary journals.

Bio

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 Ragdale Foundation, Straw Dog / Edith Wharton, 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.

www.aryasamuelson.com