Kathleen Rooney

Kathleen Rooney is an American poet, prose writer, and editor.

Life
Rooney was born in Beckley, West Virginia and raised in the Midwest. She earned a B.A. from George Washington University and an M.F.A. in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College.

A former U.S. Senate Aide, Rooney currently teaches at DePaul University, and lives in Chicago with her husband, the writer Martin Seay.

Her first book, about Oprah's Book Club, titled Reading with Oprah: the Book Club That Changed America was published by University of Arkansas Press in 2005, and was released in an updated paperback in 2008.

Random House included her essay "Live Nude Girl" in their influential anthology Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers. A book-length version called Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object was published by University of Arkansas Press in 2009.

She is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press and a frequent collaborator with the poet Elisa Gabbert, with whom she co-wrote the collection That Tiny Insane Voluptuousness.

Recognition
She was a 2003 recipient of a Ruth Lilly Fellowship] from Poetry Magazine.

Rooney was named one of the Best New Voices of 2006 by Random House, which included her essay "Live Nude Girl" in their anthology Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers.

Her first poetry collection, Oneiromance (an epithalamion) won the 2007 Gatewood Prize from feminist publisher Switchback Books.

Poetry

 * Something Really Wonderful (with Elisa Gabbert). dancing girl press, 2007.
 * That Tiny Insane Voluptuousness (with Elisa Gabbert). Otoliths, 2008.
 * Oneiromance (an epithalamion). Switchback Books, 2008.
 * Don't ever stay the same; keep changing (with Elisa Gabbert). spooky girlfriend press, 2009.
 * Robinson Alone. Gold Wake Press, 2012.

Non-fiction

 * Reading with Oprah: the Book Club That Changed America. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2005.
 * Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2009)
 * For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs. Counterpoint, 2010.

Interviews

 * Interview with Kathleen Rooney in turnrow
 * Interview with Kathleen Rooney in Bookslut
 * Interview with Kathleen Rooney in Smalldoggies