about

A writer and book artist, Kristy Bowen creates dark and poemish hybrid-genre works, as well as spooky interdisciplinary projects that enfold visual art,  performance/drama, short film, and more.  She has authored numerous books, chapbooks, zines, and artists books, both traditionally published and self-issued through  DANCING GIRL PRESS & STUDIO, where she makes and sells all manner of art, books, paper goods and accessories. Since 2004, the press is also home to a curated series of chapbooks, books, and anthologies dedicated to furthering work by women authors. Bowen lives in Chicago, where for  the past two decades, she's blogged about writing, art, horror films, thrifting, and other miscellany at DULCETLY: NOTES ON A BOOKISH LIFE. Raised in the wilds of northern Illinois, she inhabits a beautiful, but drafty, art deco building near the lake with several mongrel cats, her husband, too many books, and a vast collection of thrifted finds--only some of which are haunted. 

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Bowen is the author of multiple collections of poetry/hybrid work,  including the recent MARRY KISS KILL and WILD(ISH).  Her recent plays include an adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's THE YELLOW WALLPAPER and INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS, a retelling of Macbeth via its three famous witches. Bowen is the author of numerous projects combining image and text, including a series devoted to the female epic that currently consists of two volumes: GRANATA, a darkly sensuous retelling of the Persephone myth, and CLOVEN, a journey through the eyes of the doomed daughter of Agamemnon, Iphigenia. She also creates a regular series of video poems on YouTube.  

 

Loose bits of writing have appeared lately in The Fantastic Other, Dread Literary Review, Marrow, Grimoire, and The Morgue. A piece from her book SALVAGE, "house of strays," appeared in the Academy of American Poets' Poem-A Day:365 Poems for Every Occasion anthology. A retrospective portfolio of her text/book art projects, along with other bits of hybrid genre work, can be found at Tupelo Quarterly. 

Bowen has read and shared her work in a number of galleries, bars, bookstores, cafes, conferences, and institutions, including the Field Museum of Natural History and the Poetry Foundation. Bowen's zines, artwork and installations have been a part of digital and physical exhibits in Chicago and elsewhere, including at Woman Made Gallery, Art on Elston, Elgin Art Studio, and others.  She also occasionally facilitates public and private workshops in zine making, bookwrecking, and other paper arts.  

Bowen has also created content for a number of publications and websites about design, decor, and DIY. Articles on everything from horror movies and home improvement to antique ephemera and architecture have appeared at Classpop!, House Digest, Cozymeal, E-How, Homes.com, Worthpoint, Study.com, Thriftcon, GameRant, and others. 

 

From 2001-2015, she founded/edited the online lit zine wicked alice.  At Columbia College, she was co-founder of The Aesthetics of Research project (2014-2021) that fostered connections between artmaking and libraries through programming, art exhibits, and resource -building across multiple art mediums. 

She holds and undergrad degree in English and Theatre from Rockford University, as well as graduate degrees in literature (MA) and creative writing (MFA) from DePaul University and Columbia College Chicago.   She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.