Hello!

Thank you for visiting my website. I’m Roberta Hartling Gates, a fiction writer and former English teacher who grew up on a farm in Iowa. I’m a graduate of the University of Iowa and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. I now live in Riverside, Illinois, near Chicago, with my husband. 

A collection of my short stories entitled Number 12 rue Sainte-Catherine and Other Stories is forthcoming from Running Wild Press in 2024, so watch for it!

In 2021 I was awarded the Dogwood Literary Prize in Fiction and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Other awards include being named a runner-up in Solstice’s short story contest (2017), a Narrative finalist (2013), and a Nelson Algren finalist (2002). In addition, an unpublished collection of my short stories entitled At a Loss was a finalist in the Gold Wake Press contest (2020) and a semifinalist for Hidden River’s Eludia Award (also in 2020). 

My work has appeared in literary magazines such as Confrontation, Fourth Genre, the Beloit Fiction Journal, and elsewhere. I have an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and am also a reader for The Examined Life Journal. I am now at work on a novel set in Vichy France.