Serena Simpson is a prose writer from Chicago, IL. She has published essays in Barrelhouse and Ninth Letter. Serena writes voice-driven narratives and Black womanist cultural criticism. Her work frequently explores memory, place, and their overlap, interstices, and interplay.

Serena won the Guild Complex’s 2018 Leon Forest Prose Award for nonfiction, was named a 2019 Tin House Scholar, was awarded the 2020 Disquiet Prize for nonfiction, was selected as a 2021 Sewanee Nonfiction Scholar, and joined the Periplus Collective as a fellow in 2026. Serena earned a BA in English at Spelman College, an MA in Writing and Publishing at DePaul University, an MFA in Creative Writing, and an MA in English Literature at Northwestern University. 

She is currently working on her first novel and a memoir in essays.