Myriam Gurba

Myriam Gurba (born 1976 or 1977) is an American writer, critic, and visual artist. and the essay collection Creep: Accusations and Confessions, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism

Career Gurba's literary career began in the queer publishing industry. Her first job after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley was at On Our Backs magazine, a lesbian erotic magazine "made by lesbians for lesbians". She toured the United States with Sister Spit, a "lesbian-feminist spoken-word and performance art collective" in 2011 and 2015. and The Center Long Beach.

Works Gurba is the author of Creep: Accusations and Confessions (Avid Reader Press, 2023), Mean (Coffee House Press, 2017), Dahlia Season: Stories and a Novella (Manic D Press/Future Tense, 2007), and Painting Their Portraits in Winter: Stories which explores Mexican stories and traditions through a feminist lens.

She has written for Time, The Paris Review, American Book Review, ColorLines, and Believer Magazine.

Gurba's review of the book American Dirt in Tropics of Meta sparked controversy about cultural appropriation, the white gaze, racism, #ownvoices, and lack of diversity in the publishing industry. The review for Tropics of Meta was written after a previous review, commissioned by Ms. Magazine, was rejected for being too negative. Gurba's review, along with the hashtag #DignidadLiteraria, went viral in early 2020.

Since 2017, she and fellow author MariNaomi have been hosting an advice podcast called AskBiGrlz where they answer listener questions.

Awards Gurba's debut novel Dahlia Season won The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction from Publishing Triangle, and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Dazed ranked Dahlia Season among their list of queer lit classics. Emily Gould described Gurba as "a new writer for the first time whose voice is different from any you've heard before and who you want to keep hearing forever." Gurba's third book Mean was a finalist for the Judy Grahn Award in 2018. Her fourth book Creep was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for criticism and won the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction.