Molly McCloy’s new memoir, Nine Grudges: The Spiteful Origins of the Happiest Dyke on Earth, won the 2023 Book Pipeline “Unpublished” Award and the 2023 Quill Prose Award from Red Hen Press. Red Hen will publish her book this month. The story recounts a letter Molly composed to her father, outlining nine times he failed her and nine times she struggled to forgive. Though she didn’t know how he’d respond, Molly soon received a letter back in which her father acknowledged and took responsibility for hurting her. Unsparing and often very funny, each grudge provides an episode from Molly’s childhood told with care by an insightful adult version of the same person.
A four-time MothSLAM winner, Molly has been featured in O Magazine and on NPR. Her writing has appeared in the Huffington Post, Foglifter, and Blue Mesa Review, and she holds an MFA from the New School.