Discipline: Literature – nonfiction

Wendy Chen

Discipline: Literature – nonfiction
Region: Acton, MA
MacDowell Fellowships: 2023

Wendy Chen is the author of the poetry collection Unearthings (Tavern Books). She is the editor of Figure 1 and associate editor-in-chief of Tupelo Quarterly. Her work has appeared in Crazyhorse, Rattle, A Public Space, and elsewhere.

Chen is the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Most Promising Young Poet Prize, and fellowships from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.

At MacDowell, Chen edited her novel Their Divine Fires, which was published by Algonquin in 2024. She also worked on the introduction to her translations of Song-dynasty woman writer Li Qingzhao, a collection titled The Magpie at Night (FSG 2025). A selection of these translations was published in Freeman's.

Studios

Garland

Wendy Chen worked in the Garland studio.

Marian MacDowell and friends originally named this studio in memory of Anna Baetz, the nurse who helped care for Edward MacDowell in the waning years of his life. With generous support from the Garland family, the studio was renovated in 2013 and renamed the Peter and Mary Garland Studio. The inward opening, diamond-pane windows were replaced…

Learn more