Allison Alsup

Allison holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College. In 2017, she and several colleagues launched the New Orleans Writers Workshop where she currently teaches community-based creative writing workshops and coaches writers on their manuscripts. She is the recipient of artist residencies from the Aspen Writers Foundation and the Jentel Foundation as well as scholarships to attend advanced fiction workshops at the Aspen Writers Conference and Key West Literary Seminar.

Allison’s short story, “Old Houses”, appears in the 2014 O’Henry Prize Stories; the story has since been included in two college textbooks from Bedford/St. Martin’s: Arguing About Literature, (second edition) and Making Literature Matter. Allison’s short fiction has won multiple story contests, including those sponsored by A Room of Her Own Foundation, New Millennium Writings, Philadelphia Stories and the Dana Awards; other stories have been selected as finalists. Her story, “The Proper Protocol for Abandoned Babies” was one of six pieces shortlisted for the 2019 Manchester Story Prize, England’s largest story competition.

In addition to fiction, Allison has written extensively about New Orleans cocktail and bar scene for several local publications including The New Orleans Advocate, Edible New Orleans, most recently, Eater NOLA and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Her profile of New Orleans culinary icon Leah Chase was selected for Best Food Writing 2015. She is the co-author of The French Quarter Drinking Companion: A Guide to Bars in America’s Most Eclectic Neighborhood (Pelican Publishing), now in its second edition.