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Vanessa Veselka

Goodreads Author

Born

in Houston, Texas, The United States

Website

http://vanessaveselka.wordpress.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction

Influences

ideas of nature versus torture, dreams of grandeur, work and money. Ar ...more

Member Since

July 2009

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/vveselka

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Vanessa Veselka is a writer and musician living in Portland, Oregon. She has been, at various times, a teenage runaway, a sex-worker, a union organizer, a student of paleontology, an expatriate, an independent record label owner, a train-hopper, a waitress, and a mother. Her work has appeared in Bust, Bitch, Maxmum Rock ’n’ Roll, Yeti Magazine and Tin House. Zazen is her first novel.

A special note for the Goodreads community... I am not a critic. I leave that task to others. Writing books is something like trying to catch a handful of water in a stream; we get what we get at that moment. I only post books I like and I give everyone five stars.

71 posts
Vanessa Veselka's Blog

Blood Barons, Dishwashing, and The New York Times…

I wrote a story about selling plasma. Not because that experience is unique, but because it isn’t – or not unique enough. There are so many things I could say about the commercial Plasma industry, but the gist of it is here and I want to thank the New York Times for giving me space to write about it.

OPINION
GUEST ESSAYThe Exceptionally American Experience of Selling MyPlasma

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Vanessa Veselka’s books

Average rating: 3.69 · 4,826 ratings · 847 reviews · 9 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Great Offshore Grounds 3.58 avg rating — 1,968 ratings — published 2020 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Zazen 3.55 avg rating — 1,483 ratings — published 2011 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Essays 2013 by Cheryl Strayed (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Robert Atwan (Series Editor), Poe Ballantine (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.92 avg rating — 1,197 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The New Black by Richard Thomas (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Laird Barron (Goodreads Author) (Foreword), Brian Evenson (Contributor) 4.10 avg rating — 353 ratings — published 2014 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Untold Gaze by Stephen O'Donnell (Goodreads Author), Stephen Arndt (Contributor), Liz Asch (Contributor) 4.84 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2018 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fort of Young Saplings 3.61 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Violence: Guillotine #1 by Vanessa Veselka (Goodreads Author), Lidia Yuknavitch (Goodreads Author) 4.76 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Litro #132 - The Fairer Sex by Dan Coxon (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Vanessa Veselka (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Maia Jenkins (Contributor) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Zazen. by Vanessa Veselka (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Related News

Debut Author Snapshot: Vanessa Veselka

Bomb threats and terrorist attacks are part of daily life in her scary and yet humorous dystopian novel, Zazen. Would you stay or would you go?

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Vanessa’s Recent Updates

Vanessa Veselka is now following Diane Ioannou Author of Artemis Child on the East Coast of the Peloponn...
Oct 07, 2025 02:23PM · like

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Quotes by Vanessa Veselka (?)

“The world is a violent child none of us will get to see grow up.”
― Vanessa Veselka, Zazen

12 likes

“But I know what it means to crave what you're not. To want to sew up that rift because it's exhausting to hold it open. Sometimes you just need to be someone else, someone who doesn't care about anything at all. I know I do. I want emptiness but I can't have it.”
― Vanessa Veselka, Zazen

9 likes

“I looked at the woman crying over the doll and felt something else. I was sick of people acting against their own interests. Mooing about how to refinance the slaughterhouse. Putting skylights in the killing pen and pretending the bolt in the brain was a pathway to a better field. I paid my bill. Save your fucking pennies for a gun and a history book, I thought.”
― Vanessa Veselka, Zazen

tags: grief, history, misery, suffering

8 likes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Challenge: 50 Books: Candiss's 2011 Book Challenge	78	179	Dec 31, 2011 03:15PM
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Vanessa’s Friend Comments

Comments (showing 1-2) post a comment »

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message 2: by Richard

Jan 29, 2017 06:34AM

Nice mention in this interview with Roxane Gay in the NYT! https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/bo...

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message 1: by Vanessa

May 18, 2011 11:22AM

Even being considered in the Dark Fiction Summer Challenge makes me feel like I have arrived! Thank you! If I wasn't so busy right now with the release, I would join that group. Your booklists are amazing!