Mac Crane

Mac Crane is an American writer. Their debut novel I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Speculative Fiction.

Career
Crane's work includes poetry, nonfiction essays, and fiction. Their debut poetry collection, Our Debatable Bodies, was published in 2019.

Crane wrote a line of poetry shortly after graduating college that became the seed for what would later become their debut novel: "if the shadows of everyone you'd wronged followed you around, would you still be so callous with people's hearts?" They officially began writing the book in 2018 and initially completed it as a short story. However, after losing their job, they shifted focus to writing full-time and converting I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself to a novel. The novel centers a queer parent, Kris, navigating parenthood after the loss of their partner during childbirth. In the book's world, the government attaches extra shadows to those who have committed acts of harm or violence. The novel was published in January 2023 (under their birth name, Marisa Crane) by Catapult and received positive critical reception. It was named to "Best Book" lists in Esquire, Library Journal, Chicago Review of Books, and others. Crane won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Speculative Fiction for the book.

Their second novel, A Sharp Endless Need, is an LGBTQ coming-of-age story centered around basketball. It will be released in 2025 under Dial Press.

Personal life
Crane was born Marisa Crane in Allentown, Pennsylvania and raised in Philadelphia. They were heavily involved in sports growing up and they were also an avid reader. From the age of six they aspired to be an author and a WNBA player. They went on to play NCAA Division 1 basketball at Drexel University, but were unable to pursue a professional career due to multiple ACL tears.

Crane is queer and nonbinary, and uses they/them pronouns. They are married with two children and reside in San Diego.

Works

 * 2019. Our Debatable Bodies, Animal Heart Press ISBN 9780359542345, 2019 June 1
 * 2023. I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, Catapult, ISBN 9781646222063 2023 January 17