Tara Ison

{{Infobox academic

| nationality = American

| image = Matsunaga-2018-retirement-social-9474 (41245178864).jpg

| caption = Tara Ison in 2018 at Arizona State University

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Novelist
short story writer
essayist
screenwriter

}}

| alma_mater = Bennington College (MFA)

|workplaces={{plainlist|

}}|website={{URL|http://taraison.com/}}|honorific_prefix=|notable_works={{plainlist|

Reeling Through Life: How I Learned To Live, Love & Die at the Movies (2015)
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (co-wrote, 1991)
}}|birth_date={{birth year and age|1964}}}}

Tara Ison (born 1964{{Cite web|last=Ison|first=Tara|date=2012-11-14|title=Tara Ison: How Alcatraz Became an Ebook|url=https://megwaiteclayton.com/tara-ison-how-alcatraz-became-an-ebook/|access-date=2020-08-30|website=Meg Waite Clayton|language=en-US|quote="The story is set from 1930 to 1963, the year before I was born..."}}) is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist.

She is the author of three novels: Rockaway (Soft Skull Press, 2013), The List (Scribner, 2007), and A Child out of Alcatraz (Faber & Faber, 1997), which was a Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.{{cite news|url=http://events.latimes.com/bookprizes/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100225050735/http://events.latimes.com/bookprizes/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 25, 2010 |title=Book Prizes – Los Angeles Times Festival of Books |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=April 19, 2013 |accessdate=August 28, 2013}} A collection of essays, Reeling Through Life: How I Learned To Live, Love & Die at the Movies, was published by Soft Skull Press in January 2015, and was the winner of the 2015 PEN Southwest Award for Creative Nonfiction. Her short story collection, Ball, was published by Soft Skull Press in Fall 2015. She received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 2020 in support of a short story collection tentatively titled "The Meat Bee," after her 2018 story published in Tin House.{{cite web|title=ASU authors Tara Ison and Sarah Viren named NEA fellows|url=https://asunow.asu.edu/20200124-creativity-asu-authors-tara-ison-and-sarah-viren-named-nea-fellows|website=ASU News |date=January 24, 2020 |accessdate=14 February 2020}} Her most recent novel, At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf (IG Publishing) was published in 2023 and was a New York Times Editors' Choice recommendation.{{Cite web |title=▪ Books |url=https://taraison.com/books |access-date=2024-07-29 |website=Tara Ison |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |date=2023-05-11 |title=9 New Books We Recommend This Week |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/books/review/new-books-recommendations.html |access-date=2024-07-29 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

Work

Ison received her MFA in Fiction & Literature from Bennington College, where she was a student of Rick Moody. Institutions she has taught creative writing and screenwriting at include Washington University in St. Louis, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Goddard College and Antioch University Los Angeles. In addition, she has taught UC Riverside Palm Desert's MFA in Creative Writing program. Presently, she is a professor of English at Arizona State University.{{cite web|url=https://webapp4.asu.edu/directory/person/1616069 |title=ASU Directory Profile: Tara Ison |publisher=Arizona State University |accessdate=February 14, 2020}} She also is faculty of New England College's MFA program.{{Cite web |title=Creative Writing, MFA |url=https://www.nec.edu/cwmfa |access-date=2024-07-29 |website=New England College |language=en-US}}

Work by Ison has appeared in Tin House, Salon,{{cite web|last1=Ison|first1=Tara|title="Too stupid to be c*nts": The new normal of toxic male entitlement on campus|url=http://www.salon.com/2016/02/01/too_stupid_to_be_cnts_the_new_normal_of_toxic_male_entitlement_on_campus/|website=Salon |date=February 2016 |accessdate=13 May 2016}} O, The Oprah Magazine,{{Cite web|last=Ison|first=Tara|date=2018-12-11|title=How an Anti-feminist Book Made Me Pause Before Criticizing Other Women|url=https://www.oprahmag.com/life/a25438990/tara-ison-the-total-woman-essay/|access-date=2020-08-30|website=Oprah Magazine|language=en-US}} Electric Literature,{{cite web|last1=Ison|first1=Tara|date=October 28, 2015|title="Ball" by Tara Ison, Recommended by Rick Moody|url=https://electricliterature.com/ball-tara-ison/|accessdate=13 May 2016|website=Electric Literature}} The Kenyon Review,{{Cite web|last=Ison|first=Tara|date=Spring 2007|title=A Heart, Beating {{!}} Journal|url=https://kenyonreview.org/journal/spring-2007/selections/tara-ison-342846/|access-date=2020-08-30|website=The Kenyon Review|language=en}} The Rumpus,{{Cite web|last=Ison|first=Tara|date=2012-05-20|title=The Rumpus Sunday Essay: Flesh and Bones|url=https://therumpus.net/2012/05/flesh-and-bones/|access-date=2020-08-30|website=The Rumpus.net|language=en}} Nerve, Black Clock, TriQuarterly,{{Cite web|last=Ison|first=Tara|date=January 14, 2013|title=Needles|url=https://www.triquarterly.org/issues/issue-143/needles|access-date=2020-08-30|website=TriQuarterly|language=en}} The Santa Monica Review, PMS: poemmemoirstory, Publishers Weekly,{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=7 September 2015|title=Fiction Book Review: Ball by Tara Ison|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-59376-622-1|access-date=2020-08-30|website=PublishersWeekly.com|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=31 March 1997|title=Fiction Book Review: A Child Out of Alcatraz by Tara Ison|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-571-19910-5|access-date=2020-08-30|website=www.publishersweekly.com}} The Week, The Mississippi Review, LA Weekly,{{Cite web|last=Alimurung|first=Gendy|date=2007-03-14|title=John Banville, Tara Ison, Dennis Cooper|url=https://www.laweekly.com/john-banville-tara-ison-dennis-cooper/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200830172700/https://www.laweekly.com/john-banville-tara-ison-dennis-cooper/|archive-date=2020-08-30|access-date=2020-08-30|website=LA Weekly|language=en-US}} the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune,{{Cite web|last=Taylor|first=Elizabeth|date=January 30, 2015|title=Editor's choice: 'Reeling Through Life' by Tara Ison|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-books-editors-choice-reeling-through-life-20150130-story.html|access-date=2020-08-30|website=chicagotribune.com}} the San Jose Mercury News, and numerous anthologies.

She is also the co-writer, with Neil Landau, of the 1991 cult classic movie Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead.{{IMDb title|0101757|Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead}} The pair had originally written the script in 1987.{{Cite web|last=Armitage|first=Helen|date=2020-07-16|title=Why MTV Forced Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead's Title Change|url=https://screenrant.com/dont-tell-mom-babysitters-dead-mtv-title-change/|access-date=2020-08-30|website=ScreenRant|language=en-US}}

Awards and honors

Ison is the recipient of National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships in 2020 and 2008, and a 2008 COLA Individual Artist Grant, as well as multiple Yaddo fellowships, a Rotary Foundation Scholarship for International Study, a Brandeis National Women's Committee Award, a Thurber House Fiction Writer-in-Residence Fellowship, the Simon Blattner Fellowship from Northwestern University, and a California Arts Council Artists' Fellowship Award.

Books

File:Book Cover of Reeling Through Life.jpg

Ball: Stories
Reeling Through Life: How I Learned to Live, Love, and Die at the Movies' Winner, 2015 PEN Southwest Award for Creative Nonfiction{{Cite news|url=https://pentexas.org/2016/02/04/winners-of-the-2015-pen-southwest-book-awards/|title=Winners of the 2015 PEN Southwest Book Awards|date=2016-02-04|work=PEN Texas|access-date=2018-03-21|language=en-US}}
A Child out of Alcatraz
The List
Rockaway
At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf