Professor of Creative Nonfiction
2012, MFA-Creative Nonfiction, University of Iowa
1997, BA-Journalism, University of Texas at Austin
1997, BA-Post-Soviet Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Bio
Stephanie Elizondo Griest is a creative nonfiction writer from the Texas-Mexico borderlands. Her six books document her travels to more than 50 countries and have won multiple awards, including a Margolis Award for Social Justice Reporting. She has performed in capacities ranging from a Moth storyteller to a literary ambassador for the U.S. State Department. To read more, visit her website.
Publications:
BOOKS
- Art Above Everything: One Woman’s Global Quest to Understand the Sacrifices and Glories of a Creative Life (Beacon Press, 2025)
- All the Agents and Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands (UNC Press, 2017)
- Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines (Washington Square Press/Simon & Schuster, 2008)
- 100 Places Every Woman Should Go (Travelers’ Tales, 2007)
- Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana (Villard/Random House, 2004)
- Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010 (Editor) (Travelers’ Tales, 2010)
RECENT ESSAYS
- Does ‘Authentic’ Mexican Food Exist? (BBC Travel)
- Power Moves: Baile Folklorico Dancers of Mexico (Travel + Leisure)
- Thy Kingdom Come (Meridel Le Sueur Essay, Water~Stone Review)
- The Saga Continues: How Iceland Became The World’s Most Literary Society (AirBnB Magazine)
- Chiefing in Cherokee (VQR and Best American Travel Writing)
- Spirit Animal (Orion)
- The Disciplined Utopia (The Believer)
- Art Against The Wall (Oxford American)
Awards
- Faculty Fellow, Institute for the Arts & Humanities, UNC Chapel Hill, 2023
- Writer-in-Residence, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, NM 2021
- Artist-in-Residence, Marble House Project, Dorset, VT 2019
- Writer-in-Residence, Lannan Foundation, Marfa, TX 2019
- University Research Council Grant, UNC Chapel Hill, 2017
- Faculty Fellow, Institute for the Arts & Humanities, UNC Chapel Hill, 2015
- Inductee, Texas Institute of Letters, 2013
- Winner, PEN Southwest Book Award for Nonfiction, 2009
- Winner, Best Travel Book, International Latino Book Awards, 2008
- Winner, Richard J. Margolis Award for Social Justice Reporting, 2007
- Winner, Best Travel Book, Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition, 2007
- Hodder Fellow, Princeton University, 2005-2006
- Luce Scholar, Henry Luce Foundation, 1997-1998
- USA Today All-Academic First Team, 1996
Courses Taught:
- Intro to Creative Nonfiction
- Advanced Creative Nonfiction
- Honors Creative Nonfiction
- Travel Writing
- Memoir Writing
- Memoir as Witness
- Writing the Body