Kass Fleisher

KASS FLEISHER (21 October 1959 – 6 January 2023) was born in Wilmington, DE, and raised in the Philadelphia, PA, metro area. She held degrees in English from Dickinson College (B.A., 1981), University of North Dakota (M.A., 1989), and Binghamton University (Ph.D., 1993). She spent four years as the administrative manager and stage producer at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Fleisher was the author of five books: the novel Dead Woman Hollow (Excelsior Editions, 2012); Talking Out of School: Memoir of an Educated Woman (Dalkey Archive, 2008); the documentary nonfiction work, The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History (SUNY, 2004); and two prose works that trouble the divide between fiction and memoir, The Adventurous (Factory School, 2006) and Accidental Species: A Reproduction (Chax, 2005). With Caitlin M. Alvarez, Fleisher edited a wide-ranging literary anthology, Litscapes: Collected US Writings 2015 (Steerage, 2015). Her work appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including The Iowa Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Bombay Gin, Ragazine, Postmodern Culture, Z Magazine, American Book Review, and electronic book review, and her fiction was awarded annual prizes from The Dickinson Review and Plainswoman. Fleisher’s screenplays with writing partner Joe Amato reached the semifinal rounds of the Nicholl Fellowship, Austin Film Festival, and Chesterfield competitions, and on eight occasions placed as Second Rounders in the Austin competition. Fleisher founded Steerage Press in 2011, and taught creative writing and literature for many years with the Department of English at Illinois State University (see In Memoriam at Department of English website). Kass Fleisher died on 6 January 2023 in Normal, IL. An obituary appeared shortly after her death in The Pantagraph. For more information please see Wikipedia or contact Joe Amato at joe@joeamato.net.