Mairead Small Staid is the author of The Traces (A Strange Object/Deep Vellum, 2022), a finalist for the inaugural Pattis Family Foundation Creative Arts Book Award. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she is a graduate of Pomona College and the University of Michigan, where she won Hopwood Awards in poetry and nonfiction. She is a finalist for the 2025 DAG Prize in Literature and has received fellowships from MacDowell, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and Phillips Exeter Academy, where she was the 2017-2018 George Bennett Fellow. Her work has been published by The Atlantic, The Believer, and The Paris Review, among others. She lives in Minnesota.

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A postscript for event organizers: ‘Mairead’ rhymes with ‘parade.’