Darcey Steinke

Early life

Steinke, born in Oneida, N.Y., on April 25, 1962, is the daughter of a Lutheran minister. Steinke grew up in upstate New York; Connecticut; Philadelphia; and Roanoke, Virginia. She is a graduate of Cave Spring High School, Goucher College, and the University of Virginia, where she received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. Steinke completed a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University.

Writing

She is the author of four novels, Up Through the Water, Suicide Blonde, Jesus Saves, and Milk, and the spiritual memoir Easter Everywhere. Her fifth novel, Sister Golden Hair, was published by Tin House Books in October 2014. Steinke co-edited the collection of essays Joyful Noise: The New Testament Revisited with Rick Moody. Steinke has written extensively on art and literature and has contributed to Spin Magazine, covering the David Koresh Branch Davidian story and contributing a 1997 cover story on Kurt Cobain. In addition, she has a web project called blindspot which was part of the Whitney Biennial in 2000. Her novels Up Through the Water and Jesus Saves were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year.

Steinke's prose has been said to "repeatedly hint at the divine in tangible things." According to a Washington Post book review of Steinke's novel Milk, "Steinke writes some beautifully mystical descriptions of sexual encounters, and the conjunction of sex and the spirit, bodies and souls, is fascinating."

Steinke's writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Boston Review, Vogue, Spin Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and The Guardian.

Teaching

Steinke teaches creative writing at Princeton University and the American University of Paris and in the graduate programs at New School University and Columbia University. She previously taught at the University of Mississippi, where she was a writer-in-residence, and at Barnard College.

Personal life

Steinke married journalist Michael Hudson in June 2009. It is her second marriage after writer Michael Hornburg. Steinke lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter, Abbie. Steinke played guitar in the New York-based rock band Ruffian. Her cousin Rene Steinke is also an author.