Morgan Talty

Morgan Talty is a Penobscot [Indian Island Reservation|Penobscot] writer and an assistant professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and Contemporary Literature at the University of Maine in Orono.

Early life and education

Morgan Talty was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and lived there until he was six. He and his mother moved to the Penobscot Indian Nation in Maine, where he lived until the age of eighteen. He started studying creative writing in community college. Talty graduated from Dartmouth College and the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing.

He teaches at Stonecoast and at the University of Maine. His work has appeared in Narrative Magazine, Granta, RED INK, and The Georgia Review.

Talty's first book, Night of the Living Rez, was published July 5, 2022 by Tin House Books.
Night of the Living Rez was widely covered by periodicals and literary magazines. The book received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. Publishers Weekly named it one of the top ten works of fiction published in 2022. It won the 2022 New England Book Award for Fiction and was a runner-up for the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. A finalist for The Story Prize, it won the 2023 John Leonard Prize, awarded by the National Book Critics Circle for a first book in any genre, and was shortlisted the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Talty's second book, Fire Exit, was published June 4, 2024 by Tin House Books.

Talty is married and has one son named Charlie.