Quick Facts
Biography
Monica Drake (born 1967 in Lansing, Michigan) is an American fiction writer known for her novels, Clown Girl and The Stud Book. Clown Girl was a finalist for the 2007 Ken Kesey Award for the Novel through the Oregon Book Awards. It was named Best Book of 2007 by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk in the December 2007 issue of Playboy Magazine.
Actress, writer, and Saturday Night Live comedian Kristen Wiig optioned the film rights for Clown Girl. Clown Girl also won the Eric Hoffer Award for best Micro Press title and the Ippy Award for Story Teller of the Year from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. It appeared on Top Ten listings in the newspapers the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Oregonian.
The Stud Book gained attention for its "dead girl shots game" and the author's commentary "about the way the dead bodies of women have become such a popular television trope." The Oregonian characterized the novel as "mesmerizing" despite "off-putting" qualities and a slow start.
Drake lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, novelist Kassten Alonso, and their daughter. She is the lead faculty in the writing program at Pacific Northwest College of Art and a graduate of the University of Arizona's MFA program in creative writing.