Emerson Whitney is the author of numerous nonfiction books, including Heaven (McSweeney’s, 2020), Holding Water (McSweeney’s 2026), and the poetry title, Ghost Box (Timeless Infinite Light, 2014).

His work has been widely recognized: Heaven was a finalist for the Believer Book Award and winner of the Independent Publisher Award for Essay (2020). In 2024, Daddy Boy received the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance Award for Memoir.

Emerson’s work has appeared in The Paris Review, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books and elsewhere. Kirkus, in a starred review, called Heaven “An incisive, nuanced inquiry into gender and body.” The Paris Review called Emerson “…a deft executor of their own unique style… a writer who guides with an intuitive vulnerability and honesty.” In a second review, Kirkus compared Emerson to Gertrude Stein, and said that he “energetically and incisively captures all of that complexity and more, demonstrating a kindred spirit to Stein’s but emerging with a voice all their own.”

Emerson holds a PhD from the European Graduate School, an MFA from CalArts, and a BA from Goddard College. He was awarded a Dana and David Dornsife Postdoctoral Fellowship in Gender Studies at the University of Southern California and taught creative writing at Goddard College until its closure in 2023.

Emerson is grateful to live Downeast with his family: his wife, his best friends, and a mess of dogs. He is the proud child of a housekeeper in hospitality (a long-time housekeeper at the Bar Harbor Inn and elsewhere) and has followed in those footsteps, cleaning and writing in now-called Maine, Malihkinuwi-Waponahkik, Waponahkik, Dawnland. Emerson has retired from teaching.

Both Heaven and Daddy Boy were acquired by Cipher Press in the UK in 2023, check out those editions here!

Emerson is represented by Tim Wojick at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency, please contact Tim with any inquiries.