Kerry Hanahan graduated in May 2011 with an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from the University of Memphis, where she taught composition.  She is also an alumna of the University of Pittsburgh, with a degree in english writing, chemistry, and literature.  She is the former managing editor of The Pinch, an award-winning and internationally distributed literary journal.  She assisted in organizing events for the River City Writer’s Series, for which she interviewed authors such as Eric Schlosser, Trevor Corson, and Robert Root.  In June 2010, Hanahan traveled to Montréal on a study abroad scholarship to study fiction writing with Padgett Powell and creative nonfiction writing with Chuck Klosterman at the Summer Literary Series.  She is a finalist for the 2011 Creative Nonfiction MFA-Off and won a 2007 Creative Nonfiction Writing Award from the University of Pittsburgh.

Though voted “Quietest” in her high school class, Hanahan spends hockey season cursing opponents of the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Her vices include reading legal thrillers, eating Hot Pockets, and singing along to Taylor Swift songs with her eyes closed.

Hanahan recently completed her first creative nonfiction book, Gap, which won the 2010-2011 Ruth H. & Henry Loeb Scharff Scholarship.  She currently lives in Pittsburgh and works at a public library.