Cara Benson
Instructor Consultant
About Cara
Cara Benson is an award winning writer whose stories, poems, book reviews, and essays have been published in The New York Times, Boston Review, Orion Magazine, Best American Poetry, The Brooklyn Rail, Identity Theory, Fence, Electric Literature, Hobart, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, 3:AM, and in syndication. She has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and the bpNichols award. She is the author of (made), a collection of microprose/prose poems, of which the Huffington Post writes: “Benson does more with the two-word sentence than many poets do in two stanzas or even two poems, largely because it would be difficult to find even a single wasted word." Her personal essay, "I Was a Funny Kid", aired in syndication on NPR, and she wrote a series about walking in the woods for Best American Poetry website. Cara holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and is represented by Jennifer Thompson of Nordlyset Literary Agency. Her memoir, An Armsfull of Birds: A Field Guide to Love, Loss, and Commitment, will be out in Spring 2026 with HCI Books. She lives and writes in a former church in the homelands of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohicans.Interests
- Essay
- Memoir
- Non-Fiction
- Novel
- Poetry
- Preparing the MFA Application
- Publishing & Promotion
- Short Fiction