Darcey Steinke

Darcey Steinke (born April 25, 1962) is an American author and educator. Her most recent memoir, This Is the Door: The Body, Pain, and Faith, released in February 2026. Her other books include the memoirs Flash Count Diary, Easter Everywhere and five novels: Up Through the Water, Suicide Blonde, Jesus Saves, Milk, She has been a Henry Hoyns Fellow, a Stegner Fellow, Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi and on the long list of the Independent Book Award and the Arles Author Prize. Steinke has also served as a lecturer at Princeton University, the American University of Paris, New School University, Barnard College, the University of Mississippi, and Columbia University. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn.

Early life Steinke, born in Oneida, New York, on April 25, 1962,

She is a graduate of Cave Spring High School, Goucher College, and the University of Virginia, where she received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. , and Sister Golden Hair, Her most recent memoir, This Is the Door: The Body, Pain, and Faith, was published by Harper Collins in February 2026, and explores how humans and society reckon with pain through the lenses of science, philosophy, religion, spirituality, and art.

Steinke co-edited the collection of essays Joyful Noise: The New Testament Revisited with Rick Moody. In addition, she has a web project called blindspot which was part of the Whitney Biennial in 2000. Her novels Up Through the Water and Jesus Saves were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year.

Steinke's prose has been said to "repeatedly hint at the divine in tangible things."

Steinke's writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Boston Review, Vogue, Spin Magazine, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and The Guardian. She previously taught at the University of Mississippi,

Personal life Steinke married journalist Michael Hudson in June 2009. It is her second marriage after writer Michael Hornburg. Her cousin Rene Steinke is also an author. She has written about how her struggles with a stutter contributed to her writing career.