Katrina Carrasco

Katrina Carrasco is a writer of novels, short stories, and essays. She is queer and Latinx. Born and raised in Southern California, she relocated to the Pacific Northwest in 2010. Katrina’s writing explores the ideas of passing, performance, and belonging: what is gained and what is lost by conforming to societal expectations of gender, race, class, and sexuality. She received her MFA in Fiction in 2015, and has published short stories in Witness, Post Road, and other magazines. Katrina has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, I-Park, and Blue Mountain Center. Her debut novel, CIPHER, will be published by MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux in Fall 2018.

Katrina received 2017 GAP Award funding for her new book BADLANDS, which is set in the near future in Southern California. BADLANDS follows a queer, Latinx couple during a government effort to militarize the Mexico/U.S. border. The novel explores the idea of “desirable” vs. “undesirable” bodies, specifically in the context of detained immigrants and gender-nonconforming people. Masculine-of-center (MoC) women in particular are often portrayed as grotesque caricatures, rather than allowed to be seen as subjects of desire. In this novel, a MoC woman is the heroine, as well as subject of her partner’s desire.

Artist Trust thanks the Amazon Literary Partnership for underwriting this award through Artist Trust’s Corporate Partnership program. For information about supporting Washington State artists, visit here.