about

 

Kristy Bowen is a writer and book artist based in Chicago. She divides her time writing dark and delicious things across many genres, making books, zines, & art, and penning creative lifestyle content for various websites and publications. She blogs about writing, art, horror, and other miscellany at DULCETLY: NOTES ON A BOOKISH LIFE. Raised in the wilds of northern Illinois, she lives and works in a beautiful, but drafty, art deco building near the lake with her cats, her love, too many books, and a vast collection of thrifted finds--only some of which are haunted. 

POETRY, ESSAYS, ETC.

A writer whose hybrid work often delves into gothicism, surrealism, and the delightfully strange, Bowen issues a regular series of chapbooks, zines, and artist books blending text and image. She is the author of several longer book projects, including the recent RUINPORN, an examination of ghosts and grief, and GRANATA, a darkly sensuous retelling of the Persephone myth. Other recent collections include COLLAPSOLOGIES, AUTOMAGIC, ANIMAL VEGETABLE MONSTER, DARK COUNTRY, FEED, and SEX & VIOLENCE (Black Lawrence Press, 2020).  

Bowen's writing has recently appeared in Grimoire, Marrow Magazine, and Dark Winter. A poem, "house of strays," appeared in the Academy of American Poets' Poem-A Day:365 Poems for Every Occasion anthology. She has read her work in a number of galleries, bars, cafes, conferences, academic institutions, and other venues, including the Field Museum of Natural History and the Poetry Foundation. 

DESIGN, BOOKS, & PAPER

An extension of writing and story-making, Bowen's visual experiments include collage, printmaking, installation, assemblage, altered books, zines, and watercolor, with recent forays into digital art, AI-generated imagery, and video poetry. Her visual/text work has appeared in several Chicago-area galleries and a number of publications, including a retrospective portfolio of work, "The Poetics of Ephemera" in Tupelo Quarterly.  She occasionally facilitates workshops in zine making, bookwrecking, and other paper arts. She runs DANCING GIRL PRESS & STUDIO, where she makes and sells all manner of art, books, paper goods and accessories, as well as curates a long-running chapbook series devoted to women writers. 

CREATIVE LIFESTYLE WRITING

Bowen creates content for a number of publications and websites about design, decor, art, crafting, thrifting, and entertaining. She is a staff writer for House Digest and writes regularly for Classpop! Magazine. Additional articles on everything from horror movies and home improvement to antiques and architecture have appeared at Cozymeal, E-How, Homes.com, Worthpoint, Study.com, Thriftcon, GameRant, and others. She is currently working on a memoir project, other kinds of haunting,  about writing and thrifting