Scott Guild

BIOGRAPHY

Scott Guild is a queer musician, writer, teacher, and prison reform advocate. His work pushes aesthetic boundaries while still remaining immediate and accessible, like his heroes Kate Bush, ANOHNI, and Toni Morrison. In his twenties he was the lead guitarist and songwriter in New Collisions, a Boston art-pop band that toured with the B-52s, opened for Blondie, and collaborated with Greg Hawkes of The Cars. In his thirties he completed the linked novel-and-album Plastic (out this year from Penguin Random House), which led to widespread critical acclaim, a 15 city book-and-music tour, and a unique, bestselling audiobook that combines prose and music, produced by Grammy-winning producer Dan Zitt. 

Scott’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, NPR, Time, The Los Angeles Times, The Week, NYLON, The Boston Globe, PopMatters, The Big Takeover, Magnet, The Boston Herald, and many others. He received his MFA from the University of Texas-Austin and his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In addition to touring his work, he is a professor in Literature and Creative Writing at Marian University in Indianapolis. A strong advocate for prison reform, he served for years as the Assistant Director of Pen City Writers, a creative writing program for students imprisoned in Texas. He also currently teaches at Indiana Women’s Prison, and will be publishing an article in Time this spring on the heat crisis in American prisons.