Carrie Hall writes essays about drunk punks in the frozen tundra, about traveling through Central America during the wars, and about the science and philosophy of boredom—specifically about the weirdos, including herself, who study it. Her essays have been published in New Letters, Barren Magazine, and Pleiades Magazine. Most recently, “The Boredom Circuit” was runner-up for The Missouri Review‘s 34th Editor’s prize and is forthcoming in The Review this spring. Hall’s personal essay “Jesus and the Gavacha” won december magazine’s 2024 Curt Johnson Prose Award in Nonfiction. Of the winning piece, judge Leslie Jamison wrote: “This essay is gorgeous and deft, allergic to easy formulations and reduction; a nimble collection of brush strokes and a bruised song.”
Hall is currently working on a memoir called Murderapolis about Minnesota in the early 90s. Work on this project has been supported by grants and residencies from the RF CUNY Foundation, Ucross Foundation, and Millay Arts. She works as Assistant Professor of Composition and Director of First Year Writing at the City University of New York, where she also studies the effects of early childhood trauma on literacy learning. She lives in Brooklyn with her two cats, Hércules and Lalo Cura.