portrait and photos below by Julia Robbs
it’s never too late. In her early forties, Tina Essmaker fulfilled a lifelong dream, earning a Masters of fine arts in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
In 2023, she was a finalist for the Sewanee Review Fiction, Poetry, and Nonfiction Contest judged by Alexander Chee.
Her first published essay appeared in Roxane Gay’s newsletter, The Audacity, as part of the Emerging Writer Essay Series.
Essmaker is currently writing a memoir about her mother’s sudden death when Essmaker was ten years old and the weight that passed from her mother’s hands into hers, including caring for her widowed father and disabled twin brother.
Previously, Essmaker cofounded and served as editor-in-chief of The Great Discontent magazine, a multimedia publication of long-form interviews with notable creators. During her time with the magazine, Essmaker interviewed hundreds of creatives, including Cheryl Strayed, Roxane Gay, Reggie Watts, Sharon Van Etten, Tavi Gevinson, Leon Bridges, Krista Tippett, and many more.
In 2017, Essmaker transitioned out of The Great Discontent magazine and trained to become a coach, starting her own business helping creative professionals achieve their goals. Essmaker has written for outlets serving the creative community, including Adobe's 99U and Working Not Working Magazine, and spoken around the world, teaching at companies including Vice UK and lecturing at Parsons. She has been featured in Forbes, Print, and Brooklyn Mag’s 100 Most Influential People.
In a distant life, Essmaker earned a Bachelor's of Social Work from Wayne State University in Detroit and spent over a decade working at a shelter and transitional living program for unhoused young people in her hometown. Essmaker grew up in Michigan, has lived in New York City, and now splits her time between New Hampshire and Jersey City with her family.
