Lauren Kessler

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Lauren Kessler is an American author.

Kessler's novel Stubborn Twig received the 1994 Oregon Book Award for Literary Nonfiction. Her other works include Clever Girl: Elizabeth Bentley, the Spy Who Ushered in the McCarthy Era, a biography of Elizabeth Bentley, and the Los Angeles Times best-seller and Oregon Book Award finalist The Happy Bottom Riding Club, a biography of aviatrix Florence Pancho Barnes. Kessler is also the co-author of When Words Collide: A Media Writer's Guide to Grammar and Style. She co-authored the book with fellow professor Duncan McDonald.

Kessler's literary nonfiction and essays have appeared in such periodicals as The Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Salon, The Nation and Oregon Quarterly. She has also contributed articles on the craft of writing for Writer's Digest magazine.

Kessler is also the founder and editor of Etude, an online magazine devoted to new and emerging voices in literary non-fiction. She currently directs the graduate program in literary nonfiction at the University of Oregon in Eugene.