Meredith Talusan

Meredith Talusan (she/they) is an artist who works at the intersection of writing, visual art, science, and performance. Her work has spanned multiple mediums and genres, though they are best-known to the public as a book author and journalist.

Talusan is the author of the critically-acclaimed memoir "Fairest" from Viking/Penguin Random House, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and best book of 2020 by multiple venues, including O: The Oprah Magazine, Marie-Claire, Electric Literature, and Library Journal, and was chosen for both the Teen Vogue and LitHub Book Clubs. She has also contributed to several essay collections, including the New York Times Bestselling "Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture."

A Pushcart Prize nominee who received an MFA in fiction from Cornell University, Talusan has short stories published or forthcoming in Guernica, Boston Review, Epoch, Bellevue Literary Review, Grand, The Rumpus, Catapult, and the anthology Anonymous Sex, along with essays in The New York Times, The Guardian The Atlantic, WIRED, LitHub, and Condé Nast Traveler among other publications. She also received an MA in comparative literature from Cornell, where she published articles in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Postcolonial Text, and Arcade, as well as translations for Berfrois and Epiphany.

As a journalist, Talusan has written features for VICE Magazine, BuzzFeed News, WIRED, and Medium among other outlets. She has received awards from GLAAD, The Society of Professional Journalists, The Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus, and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Talusan is also the founding executive editor of them, Condé Nast’s LGBTQ+ digital platform, where she is currently contributing editor. She is also a contributing editor for Catapult and is on the board of Electric Literature. Talusan is on the faculty of the Sarah Lawrence MFA writing program and has taught at several residencies and conferences, including Tin House, Lambda Literary Retreat, and Grub Street. She has also done residencies at BANFF Centre, Hambidge Center, and Millay Arts, and has been the recipient of the Poynter Fellowship at Yale and the Marsha P. Johnson Fellowship from Jack Jones Literary Arts.

As a dancer, Talusan trained at the Merce Cunningham Studio, Trisha Brown Studio, and Movement Research from 2006 to 2009 and was on the board of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature, and Dance from 2013 to 2020, facilitating multiple dance workshops and performances in New York and elsewhere. They are also heavily involved in somatic practices, especially the Feldenkrais method.

As a visual artist, Talusan received an MFA in visual art from the California College of the Arts, and has exhibited in New York, Boston, and San Francisco. She has also photographed stories for VICE Magazine, BuzzFeed News, Mic, and Medium.

Talusan grew up in the Philippines before moving to the United States at fifteen, then received an honors BA in English and American Literature from Harvard College, and subsequently worked as a technical assistant for the Perceptual Science Group at MIT. They belong to the queer, trans, disabled, albino, Asian, and immigrant communities.

Talusan lives in Barryville, New York with her spouse and rescue mutt. She is currently at work on a short story collection and a novel.