Kyle Minor (born 1976) is an American writer. Born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida, Minor lived in Ohio and Kentucky before settling in Indiana. He studied writing at Ohio State University, where he was a three-time honoree in The Atlantic Monthly Student Writing Awards"The Atlantic Monthly is pleased to announce...". The Atlantic Monthly, 2005, Retrieved July 30, 2013. and a winner of the 2012 Iowa Review Prize for Short Fiction and Random House's Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers contest, and at the Iowa Writers' Workshop,Miller, Nicholas, "The Iowa Writers' Workshop," Iowa City Only, May 13, 2013, Retrieved July 30, 2013. where he reported on the 2012 United States presidential election for Esquire."Iowa and the Too-Easy Magic of the Battleground," Esquire, November 6, 2012. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
His debut collection of short fiction, In the Devil's Territory, which was described as being about how "personal secrets always exact a terrible price" in a review at the Boston Phoenix,MacLaughlin, Nina, "Kyle Minor's Book of Secrets," The Boston Phoenix, Feb. 25, 2009. Retrieved July 30, 2013. included the novella A Day Meant to Do Less, which was chosen by George Pelecanos for Houghton Mifflin's Best American Mystery Stories 2008 anthology. His stories and essays also appear in literary journals including Esquire, Southern Review, Gettysburg Review, and Gulf Coast, and in 2013/14 he wrote a biweekly column for Salon.com. His second collection of short fiction, Praying Drunk, was called an "often dazzling, emotional, funny, captivating puzzle" by Publishers Weekly."Fiction Review: Praying Drunk" in Publishers Weekly, July 2013, Retrieved July 30, 2013. In January 2015, it was awarded The Story Prize Spotlight Award, which honors a short story collection worthy of additional attention.
Minor has written about driving for Uber following a film deal that fell through.
A collection of essays, How to Disappear and Why, was published in February 2026 by Sarabande Books and received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.
Bibliography How to Disappear and Why (essays, Sarabande Books, 2026) Praying Drunk (short fiction, Sarabande Books, 2014) In the Devil's Territory (short fiction, Dzanc Books, 2008)
References
External links Official Web Site Kyle Minor's essay "The Question of Where We Begin" in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (23.1).