Christian Moody
PEN America Literary Award finalist
Kirkus starred review
Fiction writer · Brand content strategist · Teacher
Read “The Go Seekers,” the first story in my book, free.
Prizes & Honors
Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews
PEN Award Finalist
For the Robert W. Bingham Prize
Dzanc Prize for Fiction
for Lost in the Forest of Mechanical Birds
Calvino Prize
for “Babycatcher” from the University of Louisville
Shortlist, Indiana Authors Award
Photo: Christian Moody at the PEN America Literary Awards, The Town Hall, New York, March 2026, with his wife, memoirist and illustrator Margaret Kimball. Beowulf Sheehan / PEN America.
Praise
“These strange, wonderful tales will enchant readers of all stripes, from the literary-minded to the speculative-loving… A brilliant collection of delightfully surreal tales that linger long after reading.”
— Kirkus Reviews, ★ starred review
“Fabulous fabulist stories with sentences tight as harp strings. Moody will unzip your ribcage, extract your heart, and use it for a punching bag. But the heart he puts back will beat beautifully, wildly faster.”
— David James Poissant, Professor of English, University of Central Florida, author of Lake Life
“The author’s light-handed touch, relatable characters, and vivid imagery accompanied with his wicked sense of humor make the collection a very accessible and enjoyable read. Christian Moody, a modern-day fabulist whose stories deliver a message”
“Moody’s gorgeously lyrical stories of loss and transformation tread the border between the dream world and waking–fables infused with ordinary life, the quotidian set aglow with a loving and sinister magic.”
— Dan Chaon, bestselling author of Ill Will and One of Us
“Christian Moody is a marvelous storyteller, somehow both innovative and old-fashioned… You read these stories the way you would read the Brothers Grimm, and the modern masters Shirley Jackson and Kelly Link… What a debut!”
— Brock Clarke, A. Leroy Greason Professor of English, Bowdoin College, bestselling author of An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England
About the Book
Best friends George and Elly start a hide-and-go-seek club inspired by their love of the game, which goes too far when Elly stays hidden for years. An orphan discovers that the trees on the outskirts of town have eyes that watch and record the town’s inhabitants, threatening to expose their most vulnerable secrets. In a world with hardly any birds left, a struggling family lives alone in the woods, where the father begins to create mechanical birds which threaten the only life left. And a man working at a futuristic egg factory spots an anomaly in one of the eggs, which, along with the fact that his wife and daughter spontaneously get pregnant at the same time, sparks his journey to uncover the company’s secrets.
For fans of George Saunders and Haruki Murakami, Christian Moody delivers his debut speculative short story collection, Lost in the Forest of Mechanical Birds—tales of the strange beauty and shadowy fears that lurk beneath the surface of our everyday lives.
Winner of the 2023 Dzanc Short Story Collection Prize, this debut collection weaves surreal and haunting tales that explore climate change, technology, surveillance, and the hidden mysteries of being human.
Lost in the Forest of Mechanical Birds is published by Dzanc Books (2025).
Interviews & Reviews
“Dreams and Daydreams”
A conversation with David James Poissant, The Florida Review
Interview with Christian Moody
The Cincinnati Review
My Reading Life
Debutiful
Starred review
Kirkus Reviews
Review
Southern Literary Review
Photo: On the red carpet at the PEN America Literary Awards, The Town Hall, New York, March 2026. Photo by Margaret Kimball.
Readings & Visits
University of Cincinnati Clermont
Reading, talk, and class visit, April 2026
Kellogg Writers Series, University of Indianapolis
Reading and talk, November 2025
University of Indianapolis
Creative writing class visits, yearly since 2023
I visit classes and give readings, talks, and Q&As both in-person and virtually. Get in touch below.
Photo: Reading at the Kellogg Writers Series, University of Indianapolis, on my birthday, hence the amazing hat. Photo by Stella Moody.
About
Christian Moody is a writer who works across fiction, brand content, and teaching. His debut collection, Lost in the Forest of Mechanical Birds (Dzanc Books, 2025), won the Dzanc Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. His stories have appeared in Esquire, Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New American Voices, and Best American Fantasy, and he has won the Calvino Prize and the Bruckheimer Prize in Fiction.
He holds an MFA and an MS in English Education from Syracuse University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati, where he was an editor at The Cincinnati Review. He taught creative writing and literature at Centre College and Franklin College, and at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he was an associate professor and acting chair of liberal arts. He has since led brand and content for direct-to-consumer e-commerce companies.
He and his wife, memoirist and illustrator Margaret Kimball, co-founded Readway, a company working toward a more literate world, starting with children’s literacy. He lives in Indianapolis with Margaret and his two kids.