Rachel Louise Snyder Professor CAS | Literature
- Additional Positions at AU
- Professor
- Degrees
- MFA, Creative Writing, Emerson College
BA English/History, North Central College - Languages Spoken
- English, some Spanish
- Favorite Spot on Campus
- I'll never tell!
- Bio
- Rachel Louise Snyder is the author of Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade, the novel What We’ve Lost is Nothing, No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us and the memoir Women We Buried, Women We Burned. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, and the New York Times magazine, among many others, and she is currently a Contributing Writer for the New York Times opinion pages. In 2024, her memoir received the Independent Book Award and was named a “Best Book” of the year by Kirkus and Oprah Daily. In 2021, she was a Guggenheim Fellow and is currently a fellow for the Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University.No Visible Bruises was awarded the 2018 Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, the 2020 Book Tube Prize, the 2020 New York Public Library’s Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Sidney Hillman Book Award for social justice. It won Best Book in Translation in Taiwan in 2021 and has been translated into more than fifteen languages. It was named one of the best books of 2019 by the Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Amazon, Kirkus, the Library Journal, the Economist, and BookPage; the New York Times included it in their “Top Ten” books of 2019. No Visible Bruises was also a finalist for the Kirkus Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the LA Times Book Award, and the Silver Gavel Award. Currently, Snyder is working with Stanford University’s Criminal Justice Lab on criminalized and incarcerated survivors of domestic violence and is at work on her fifth book, tentatively entitled: Regilla: How Men Pay the Price for Women’s Violence. For six years, Snyder was a correspondent for public radio’s “Marketplace”, based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Originally from Chicago, Snyder holds a BA from North Central College and an MFA from Emerson College. Originally from Chicago, she has a joint appointment as a professor in journalism and creative writing at American University. In the winter of 2025, she was a Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford University. And, finally, nothing can stand between her and petting a cute dog.
- See Also
- Prof Snyder's site: www.rachellouisesnyder.com
- Literature Department
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request. Explore all AU Faculty Experts in our media guide.
Teaching
Fall 2025
-
LIT-710 The Art of Literary Journalism
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Selected Publications
- New Yorker
- New York Times, opinion (contributing writer)
- New York Times Magazine
- Washington Post
- National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered
- Public Radio International’s “This American Life”
- American Public Media’s “Marketplace”
- New Republic
- Chicago Tribune
Media Appearances
- "The Daily Show" with Trevor Noah
- "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross
- "1A" with Jenn White
- Marketplace
- The World
- This American Life
- New York Times
- Los Angeles Times
- The Guardian
- Chicago Tribune
- Bloomberg News
- Christian Science Monitor
- Publisher’s Weekly
Research Interests
Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence
Criminal Justice Reform
Gun Violence
Gender-based Violence
Violence Intervention and Diversion Programs
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
- Guggenheim Fellow
- Lukas Work-in-Progress Award
- Independent Book Award
- Hillman Book Prize
- New York Public Library Bernstein Award
- National Book Critics Circle Award, finalist
- Kirkus Award, finalist
- Silver Gavel Award, Honorable Mention,
- “Top Ten” Books of the Year, New York Times (2019)
- National Book Award for translation (Taiwan)
- Lowell Thomas Award, Overseas Press Club, Best Interpretation of International Affairs
- Society for Professional Journalists, General Excellence
Films/Documentaries
- Killer Sally (Netflix)
- Scars Unseen (LA Indie Film Fest)
- The Power of Storytelling (documentary short)