Thea Goodman is a novelist, poet and educator in Chicago. Born in New York City, she earned a BA at Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College, CUNY. Her first novel, The Sunshine When She’s Gone (Henry Holt) about a marriage upended by a new baby, appeared in 2013 to critical acclaim.

Her short fiction, essays and poems, about the edgy and sensory world of  the domestic, have appeared in New England Review, Arrowsmith, Columbia, The Penn Review and The Rumpus among many other publications. Honors are inclusion in The New York Public Library’s digital archive, Stories on the MTA, 2019 for her short story, “Evidence;” a Pushcart Prize Special Mention; The Columbia Fiction Award; a Story Magazine short-short award as well as residency fellowships at The Ragdale Foundation and the Corporation of Yaddo.

Goodman has taught Creative Writing at Eugene Lang College, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was a Visiting Faculty Member at The University of Chicago between 2016-2019. The Invented Mother, her first poetry collection, was a finalist in The New Women’s Voices Competition 2022, and was published in Fall 2023 by Finishing Line Press. She lives in Chicago with her family. Currently she is at work on a contemporary, urban novel,  new poems, and the Spanish translation of several poems in The Invented Mother.  Goodman serves as the National Council co-chair of Graywolf Press.

Contact Thea at goodthayer@gmail.com