Aryn Scanlon’s Creative Writing CV
Education
BFA in Creative Writing from Chapman University 2013-2017
Minor in French
Semester abroad in Paris attending Université Paris-Sorbonne
Internships
Administrative & Editorial Assistant at Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary journal 2019-2021
Editorial Experience
Co-editor for Sinister Wisdom 128: Trans/Feminisms* 2023, which was afinalist for the Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature from the Publishing Triangle
*Please note: at the time of this publication, I was going by my government name Cassidy Scanlon
Fellowships & Retreats
Young Adult Fiction Fellow at Lambda Literary’s Writers 2025 Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ+
Curatorial Experience
Offbeat Junction May 2017: co-curated an art show at the Anaheim GardenWalk. The exhibit featured the visual representation of my thesis for my BFA in Creative Writing.
21st Century Dada: Silly Art Show Apr 2017: co-curated art show that highlighted how the aesthetics of internet culture is reminiscent of the Dada art movement of the early 20th century.
Featured Writing
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Featured Writing *
Punk Rock Intervention
"I wasn’t disassociating, letting life passively happen to me. When I was shoved, I pushed back. I danced and got the shit kicked out of me and laughed because I could feel myself reacting to other people’s bodies, responding to the boundaries of skin that bind and separate us. Mosh pits blur and stir the concept of barriers, as participants never abandon their physical autonomy even when they yield to the unpredictability of the pit."
The Zodiac Signs as 20th Century Art Movements
“The 12 archetypical signs of Zodiac reflect and deepen the unique characteristics of the avant-garde movements of the 20th century. “The language of art is image, symbol… a language of felt experience,” Julia Cameron writes in The Artist’s Way. The Zodiac is a language too, of symbols, archetypes, associations. The astrologer wields self-expression just like a painter holds a brush or a sculptor molds tactile material. The foundation of both mediums is a desire to merge meaning with experience.”
Eating Disorders and Editorials: The Transformative Power of Fashion Photography
“Like most girls growing up in a society over-saturated with media representations of beauty, bodies, and the “ideal woman,” I questioned my worth and value in comparison to these images. They contributed to my distorted self-perception, serving as kindling to my eating disorder. Everyone finds their own healing process, but mine was reinventing theses images with my best friend Kalaija by staging our own photoshoots; a process that allowed us to be participants in a narrative that preferred us to be voyeurs.
Lambda Literary Fellow Reading
This is a video of the reading I did as a Young Adult Fiction Fellow at Lambda Literary’s 2025 Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices.
The reading features an excerpt from my novel-in-progress about a group of teenagers who evoke an ancient goddess to enact revenge on their abusers.
List of Publications
Please note: Some of these publications are under my government name Cassidy Scanlon.
I started publishing under the name Aryn Scanlon in 2023.
Fiction
And I’ll Be Your Song, a chapter excerpt of my YA novel-in-progress published in Lambda Literary’s EMERGE Anthology2025
Creative Non-Fiction
Desire is a Knife, published on my Side Quests Substack 2025
Eating Disorders and Editorials: The Transformative Power of Fashion Photography published by Dismantle Magazine 2019
Punk Rock Intervention published by PULP 2019
Matriarchs of Starvation published on Medium 2018
Essays & Articles
Flop to the Top, published on my Side Quests Substack 2025
Scorpio Season Filmscopes, published on my blog 2025
The Zodiac Signs as 20th Century Art Movements published by Merry-Go-Round Magazine 2020
Sapphic Sorcery Column published by Pussy Magic 2019-2020
Poetry & Visual Art
aries moon & infatugaytion published by Honey & Lime 2020
social(mediated) published by Honey & Lime 2019
queer temporality published in Chronotype Magazine 2019
The Somnambulist, self-published in Paris 2016