Sybil Baker

Novelist, Short Fiction Writer, Essayist, Editor

Sybil Baker’s latest novel Apparitions is the winner of the 2024 IPPY Gold Medal in short fiction. She is the author of five books of fiction, including While You Were Gone, which won an IPPY Silver Medal. Her book of nonfictionImmigration Essays was the 2018-2019 Read2Achieve selection for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She was awarded two MakeWork Artist Grants and an Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission. She is a professor of creative writing at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, is the dIrector of the Meacham Writers’ Workshop, and is on faculty at the Yale Writers’ Workshop.

Sybil is a woman with Southern roots but with international yearnings: she lived in South Korea for twelve years where she met her South African husband and has family in Turkey, South Africa, and Ireland. She doesn’t like sweet tea but does say y’all.