Cris Beam

Point Scholar: 2002-2005

Columbia University
M.F.A., Non-Fiction Writing

Cris Beam received an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University in 2005, with support from the Point Foundation. Her first book, Transparent: Love, Family and Living the T, was released by Harcourt in 2007 and won a Lambda award and was a Stonewall Honor Book. Her second book entitled I am J, is about a runaway transgender boy in New York, was released in March of 2011. She now teaches creative writing at Columbia University, New York University, The New School, and Bayview Women's Correctional Facility. She is currently working a nonfiction book about the state of foster care in the U.S. which will be published by Harcourt Houghton Mifflin in 2012.

This alumni bio was updated with information provided in March 2011.