01Heaven Is a Place on Earth
Searching for an American Utopia
A personal odyssey through American utopian experiments, and the search for a more communal life in an age of precarity.
Discover the bookAuthor · Essayist · Literary agent
From the Catskill Mountains
Writing toward
other possibilities.
On community, belief, and the lives we
might make together.
Books and essays about the strange, the sacred,
and the possibility of a more communal life.
A little hope.
01 / The books
Ways of seeing.
Ways of being.
Memoir meets history.
The personal opens onto the possible.
01
02NPRBEST BOOK
2017
And Your Daughters Shall Prophesy
Stories from the Byways of American Women and Religion
A hybrid memoir tracing the women prophets, mystics, and spiritual outsiders who helped shape America—and one writer’s own questions.
Discover the bookIt’s an exquisite book, but it’s also an open door for all who’ve been hungering for a new way to think of community and our place within it.
Anne Helen Petersen on Heaven Is a Place on Earth
02 / Selected writing
Out in the world.
Essays, encounters,
and paths less traveled.
The Whole Utopianotes Catalog
A creative life needs
a little possibility.
Artist residencies, fellowships, open calls, and other ways forward. Adrian’s ongoing collection of opportunities for writers and artists.
NOTES TOWARD
A MORE CREATIVE WORLD
Adrian ShirkWriter / Teacher / Neighbor
03 / A little about me
A life in
the margins.
Adrian Shirk is an essayist and memoirist interested in belief, community, and the unexpected ways people make a life.
She is the author of Heaven Is a Place on Earth and And Your Daughters Shall Prophesy, an NPR Best Book of 2017. Her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Literary Hub, Catapult, and elsewhere.
She is a literary agent at Driftless Literary, teaches in Pratt Institute’s Writing Department, and is an ensemble member of The Party Theater. She lives in the Catskill Mountains.
Get in touch04 / In company with writers
For the work that
finds its own way.
At Driftless Literary, Adrian works with writers of creative nonfiction, memoir, essay collections, and hybrid work—with an interest in literature that resists easy categories.
For representation and longer-term editorial partnerships, visit Driftless to learn about the consultancy’s process and submit a project.
Meet Driftless LiteraryIndividual consultations are by referral.
Use the booking code Adrian shared with you to view available appointments.
Let’s stay in touch
Something on
your mind?
adrian.shirk@gmail.com For books, conversations, readings, and other possibilities.
Literary representation
Jaclyn Gilbert · Driftless Literary
jaclyn@driftlessliterary.com ↗