Laura Goode
{{short description|American author, novelist, essayist, poet, screenwriter, producer, and feminist}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Laura Goode
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1983|11|25}}
| birth_place = Edina, Minnesota, U.S.
| occupation = {{flatlist|
- Author
- screenwriter
- poet
}}
| education = Edina High School
Columbia College (BA)
Columbia University School of the Arts (MFA)
| notableworks = Sister Mischief, Farah Goes Bang, Become a Name, Pitch Craft
| image = Laura Goode.jpg
| website = {{URL|www.lauragoode.com}}
| alma_mater =
}}
Laura Goode (born November 25, 1983) is an American author, essayist, poet, screenwriter, producer, and feminist. She currently serves as associate director for Student Programs for the Public Humanities Initiative at Stanford University, where she teaches in the English department and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program. She is the author of the young adult novel Sister Mischief and the poetry collection Become a Name, and the co-writer and producer of the feature film Farah Goes Bang. Her nonfiction craft book, Pitch Craft: The Writer's Guide to Getting Agented, Published, and Paid, is forthcoming in fall 2025. In December 2024, she launched the newsletter Re/Definitions.[https://lauragoode.substack.com/ Re/Definitions] She lives in San Francisco, California.
Early life
Goode was raised in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis–Saint Paul which provided the inspiration for Sister Mischief
Career
= Literary work =
Laura Goode's debut young adult novel, Sister Mischief, was published by Candlewick Press in 2011.{{Cite web|title = Candlewick Press - Catalog|url = http://candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763646407&pix=n|website = candlewick.com|accessdate = 2015-07-05}} The novel follows Esme, a Jewish lesbian teenager who forms a hip-hop group with her friends in the fictional town of Holyhill, Minnesota. Goode has cited her "love for young people" and her "frustration with the lack of strong literary role models for young women of all different cultural backgrounds and sexual identities" as motivations for writing the book.{{Cite web|title = Me, My Shelf and I: {Author Interview} Laura Goode|url = http://www.memyshelfandi.com/2011/06/author-interview-laura-goode.html|website = www.memyshelfandi.com|accessdate = 2015-09-25}} Sister Mischief was a 2012 Best of the Bay pick by the San Francisco Bay Guardian,{{Cite web|title = Best of the Bay 2012: BEST YOUNG ADULT HIP-HOP MISCHIEF {{!}} SF Bay Guardian|url = http://www.sfbg.com/specials/best-bay-2012-best-young-adult-hip-hop-mischief|website = www.sfbg.com|accessdate = 2015-07-05}} a top 10 selection of the American Library Association's Rainbow List for excellence in GLBTQ YA literature,{{Cite web|title = 2012 Rainbow Book List Announced|url = http://glbtrt.ala.org/rainbowbooks/archives/953|accessdate = 2015-07-05}} and a selection of the ALA's Amelia Bloomer List for excellence in feminist YA literature.{{Cite web|title = 2012 Amelia Bloomer List| date=24 January 2012 |url = https://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com/2012-bloomer-list/|accessdate = 2015-07-05}}
Goode's essays, poems, and short fiction have appeared in numerous publications, including Bright Ideas Magazine (where she was a columnist and contributing editor), ELLE, Buzzfeed, Refinery29, New Republic, New York Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Catapult, Glamour, InStyle, Publishers Weekly, Longreads, The Believer: Logger, Scratch, Vela, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Rumpus, Boston Review, The New Inquiry, IndieWire, Dossier, and anthologies including Starry Eyed: 16 Stories That Steal The Spotlight, Please Excuse This Poem: 100 Poets for the Next Generation, and Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living.
Her collection of poems Become A Name was released by Fathom Books in October 2016.{{Cite web |title=Laura Goode - Become a Name |url=http://fathombooks.org/html/goode.html |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=fathombooks.org}}
Her nonfiction craft book Pitch Craft: The Writer's Guide to Getting Agented, Published, and Paid is forthcoming from Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House, in fall 2025.
= Film =
While an undergraduate at Columbia, Goode met and became friends with Meera Menon, who starred in a play Goode wrote.{{Cite web |title=The Believer Logger - Girls Behind The Camera: An Interview with Meera Menon |url=http://logger.believermag.com/post/54032661371/girls-behind-the-camera-an-interview-with-meera |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092225/http://logger.believermag.com/post/54032661371/girls-behind-the-camera-an-interview-with-meera |archivedate=2016-03-04 |accessdate=2015-07-05 |website=www.believermag.com/logger}} Later, Goode and Menon co-wrote the feature film Farah Goes Bang, which Menon directed and Goode produced.{{Citation |title=Farah Goes Bang |date=1 Apr 2013 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2396485/ |accessdate=2015-07-05}} Farah Goes Bang premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival,{{Cite web |title=Farah Goes Bang {{!}} Tribeca Film Festival |url=https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/archive/513a8387c07f5d47130002a5-farah-goes-bang |accessdate=2015-07-05 |website=Tribeca}} where it was awarded the inaugural $25,000 Nora Ephron Prize by Tribeca and Vogue.{{Cite web |last=Goodman |first=Stephanie |date=25 April 2013 |title=Nora Ephron Prize Is Given to Director of 'Farah Goes Bang' |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/nora-ephron-prize-for-farah-goes-bang/?_r=0 |accessdate=2015-07-05}} Farah Goes Bang also won the Comcast Narrative Competition at CAAMFest.{{Cite web |url=http://caamfest.com/2014/files/2014/04/CAAMFest2014_wrap_release_FINALsmallpdf.com_.pdf |accessdate=2015-07-05 |website=caamfest.com}} Goode designed and executed a Kickstarter campaign for the movie, which raised $81,160 for production of the film.{{Cite web |title=Farah Goes Bang |url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/840275721/farah-goes-bang |accessdate=2015-07-05 |website=Kickstarter|date=10 April 2015}} Farah Goes Bang
= Academic and public humanities work =
Since 2019, Goode has served as associate director for Student Programs at the Public Humanities Initiative at Stanford University. In this role, she helped launch the flagship speaker series What Is a Public Intellectual Today, which has featured authors such as Jia Tolentino, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Alexander Chee, Anne Helen Petersen, Wesley Morris, and Maggie Nelson.
Goode is also the co-host of The Feminist Present, a podcast produced with Adrian Daub and supported by the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research.{{Cite web |title=Podcast: The Feminist Present {{!}} The Clayman Institute for Gender Research |url=https://gender.stanford.edu/news-publications/podcast-feminist-present |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=gender.stanford.edu}} Guests have included Judith Butler, Angela Garbes, Melissa Febos, Jeanette Winterson, Merve Emre, Susan Stryker, Evette Dionne, and Cheryl Strayed.
From 2017 to 2023, Goode served on the board of directors for [https://sfwar.org/about-us/our-history/ San Francisco Women Against Rape], a long-standing organization recognized for its rape crisis services and commitment to women of color leadership.
Personal life
Goode was previously married and finalized her divorce in August 2024.{{Cite web |last=Goode |first=Laura |date=2024-12-31 |title=Good luck, babe |url=https://lauragoode.substack.com/p/good-luck-babe |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=Re/Definitions}} She has two sons.
Works
- Sister Mischief (young adult novel, 2011)
- Farah Goes Bang (screenplay, 2013)
- Become A Name (poetry, 2016)
- Pitch Craft: The Writer's Guide to Getting Agented, Published, and Paid (non-fiction, 2025)
Awards
- For Sister Mischief
- Best of the Bay, San Francisco Bay Guardian 2012
- Top 10 selection of American Library Association's Rainbow List for excellence in GLBTQ YA literature 2012
- For Farah Goes Bang
- Norah Ephron Prize, Tribeca Film Festival 2013
- Comcast Narrative Competition, CAAMFest
- Bud Abbott Award for Feature Length Comedy, Garden State Film Festival 2014{{Cite web|title = 2014 Festival|url = http://www.gsff.org/2014-festival/|website = Garden State Film Festival|accessdate = 2015-09-25|archive-date = 2014-09-24|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140924041752/http://www.gsff.org/2014-festival/|url-status = dead}}
- Best Narrative Feature, Austin Asian American Film Festival 2014{{Cite web|title = Timeline Photos - Austin Asian American Film Festival {{!}} Facebook|url = https://www.facebook.com/AAAFF/photos/a.220511525760.172882.43767710760/10152855570630761/|website = www.facebook.com|accessdate = 2015-09-25}}
- For non-fiction
- Steinbeck Fellowship at San José State University{{Cite web |title=2018-2019 Steinbeck Fellows {{!}} The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies {{!}} San Jose State University |url=http://www.sjsu.edu/steinbeck/fellows/steinbeckfellows_2018_2019/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20220124095857/https://www.sjsu.edu/steinbeck/fellows/steinbeckfellows_2018_2019/ |archive-date=2022-01-24 |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=www.sjsu.edu}} 2018–2019
- Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College 2019
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Goode, Laura}}
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:American women novelists
Category:21st-century American poets
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:People from Edina, Minnesota
Category:Screenwriters from Minnesota
Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni