Makenna Goodman is an editor and a writer. She is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, Helen of Nowhere and The Shame.

Helen of Nowhere is published in the US by Coffee House, 2025; in the UK by Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2026; and in Spain by Mutatis Mutandis Editorial. It was named a Best Book of 2025 (The Paris Review and Granta), “exhilarating” (Financial Times) and “wildly original…this is fiction that will sharpen your attention to the world, make it more intense. It reminds us that we don’t have to understand or like everything about a book to get something out of it. In fact, allowing ourselves to feel stimulated and perplexed feels like intellectual freedom and an awakening of human potential” (The Times).

Her first novel, The Shame, published by Milkweed Editions, 2020, was named a Harvard Review Favorite Book, a White Review Best Book of the Year, a Refinery29 Best New Book, a Literary Hub Recommended Read, and more. The Shame has been translated into Farsi.

Goodman has written literary criticism, essays, interviews, and short fiction for international publications including New York Review of Books, New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, Literary Hub, Catapult, Harvard Review, the White Review, BOMB, The Common, ASTRA, MOUSSE, and RA Magazine. She has been interviewed in the Paris Review Daily, Guernica, The Rumpus, The Millions, EcoTheo, and on the BBC, NPR and the Commonplace Podcast, among others.

She was interviewed by James Crawford for Take Four Books (BBC) here, and by Alexander Chee in the Paris Review here. She was in conversation with Booker Prize finalist Rachel Cusk for the launch of her book Second Place here, and interviewed Booker Prize finalist Mieko Kawakami for BOMB here. She interviewed Celia Paul for ASTRA Magazine here, and National Book Award Winner Vigdis Hjorth here. Read her short fiction in the White Review here and in MOUSSE Magazine here. Read her essay on Helen and Scott Nearing in the New York Review of Books here. Read an essay in PW about her celebration of the writer Tove Jansson at the 92stY here.

She has worked in publishing for two decades as an editor with artists, activists, gardeners, horticulturalists, artists, farmers, essayists, cultural critics, designers, scientists, composters, seed savers, foragers, and fermenters, and books she has developed and edited have won awards including the CALIBA award, the James Beard Award, the American Horticultural Society Award, and the IACP award. She is currently executive editor at Timber Press.

Please direct all literary inquiries to Sarah Bowlin, Aevitas Creative Management, sbowlin@aevitascreative.com