Arya Samuelson
Nonfiction
Northampton, MA
Arya Samuelson is a writer, editor, educator, and somatic practitioner-in-training in Western Massachusetts. She is the winner of New Ohio Review’s Nonfiction Prize, Lascaux Review’s Nonfiction Prize, and CutBank’s Montana Prize in Nonfiction awarded by Cheryl Strayed. Her essay, “I Am No Beekeeper” was selected as Notable in Best American Essays 2024. Other essays and stories have been published in Fourth Genre, Bellevue Literary Review, Columbia Journal, Gertrude, and elsewhere. Arya graduated from Mills College with an MFA in Prose, and her work has received support from Marble House, Virginia Creative Colony for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and Juniper Summer Writing Institute. As an editor ad educator, Arya is passionate about helping people unearth the stories of their bodies and transform them into art. She is currently writing a a memoir, a novel, and a book of essays.
In the past, Arya has worked as an advocate for domestic violence survivors, a case worker with homeless adults with mental illness, a coordinator at a synagogue, and a grant writer for international and hyper-localized social justice non-profits. She is on the Board of Directors for Perugia Press. When she isn’t writing or working, she is making herbal medicines, singing Eastern European choral music, or scouting adorable dogs. She is currently in training to become a Somatic Experiencing practitioner.