Carol Anshaw
Carol Anshaw (born March 22, 1946) is an American novelist, short story writer, and painter from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. She earned a BA from Michigan State University in 1968 and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 1992.
Anshaw has published five novels. Her debut Aquamarine (1992) was praised and named one of The Triangle's 100 Best Gay and Lesbian Novels. Carry the One (2012) is a celebrated portrait of grief and family life, set mainly in Chicago. She has won several awards, including the Carl Sandburg Award, the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lucky in the Corner (2003), and the Society of Midland Authors Award; her work has been a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards four times.
Her short fiction has appeared in Story and Tin House, and she earned a National Book Critics Circle Citation for Excellence in Reviewing for her Village Voice criticism. Anshaw taught in the MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for about 20 years. As a painter, she created Walking Through Leaves, a biography of Vita Sackville-West shown in 2013, and a series about swimmer Gertrude Ederle.
Since 1996 she has been in a partnership with Jessie Ewing; they married in 2014 and divide their time between Chicago and Amsterdam.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:57 (CET).