Laurie Ann Doyle

My writing is grounded in my home state of California, its foggy coastlines, sky-crushing redwoods, and endless strip malls. When I write, even the air around me seems filled with the sights and sounds that shape my characters.

So it’s probably no coincidence that all the stories in my book WORLD GONE MISSING are set in and around San Francisco: Golden Gate Park, the flatlands of Oakland, Berkeley’s People’s Park, and other Bay Area locales. The collection is linked by what most of us know but never talk about: people don’t become fully visible until they disappear. And they can disappear in so many ways.  

Best American Short Stories-contributor Peter Orner calls WORLD GONE MISSING “a gorgeous debut.” The New York Times bestselling-author Edan Lepucki says the book delivers “powerful portraits of people desiring hope, and resolution, even, to all that cannot be resolved.” Read an excerpt here.

My stories, essays, and poems have appeared in McSweeny’s, The Rumpus, Alta Journal, Santa Fe Literary Review, 100 Word Story, Dogwood Journal, The Los Angeles Review, and many other publications. Winner of the Alligator Juniper National Fiction Award, my work has been nominated for Best New American Voices, Best American Essays, and the Pushcart Prize. I am the co-founder of Babylon Salon, San Francisco’s premier literary series, and teach at The Writers Grotto, as well as UC Berkeley Extension, where I am an honored instructor.

My husband, son, and I live in Berkeley’s Elmwood neighborhood, just a few blocks from the house that my mother and grandmother once called home.

Natalie Baszile, Laurie, Molly Giles, and Candy Shue at Babylon Salon