Skip to content Skip to footer

>> Taylor Cleland

Taylor Cleland

Tucson, Arizona

Literary Launchpad with Tim MacGabhann

I’m a teacher and writer based in Tucson, Arizona, about 90 miles north of the US-Mexico border. I moved away for college and was shocked to discover that almost no narratives about the border regions or the American West include the specific cultures and histories I grew up in. It’s nearly impossible to find texts representing the students I teach – especially those who are mixed racial or indigenous – or our geographical location.

I hold a degree in screenwriting (Northwestern University, 2013) and got my start on scripted web series and podcasts (Personal Space, 2018; Parcast Network 2018-2019; Dear Earth I’m Really Sorry; upcoming 2021). After returning to Arizona three years ago, I began teaching and my return to prose. As both a writer and a teacher, my work deals with mythology, folklore, history, intersectional identity, queerness, and what it means to center the other as the default experience. I am currently working on a novel project about ghosts and a novella project about faeries, both set in Tucson.

My mother was a zookeeper when I was a child, so I have pet most of the mammal species native to the Sonoran Desert.

Taylor Cleland - Under The Volcano