Cai Emmons was a novelist, playwright, teacher. She was born on January 15, 1951. Her education included a BA from Yale University, an MFA in film from New York University, and another MFA in fiction from the University of Oregon. She taught fiction and screenwriting at the University of Oregon, 2002 - 2018. She also taught at the university of Southern California.
Cai Emmons was the author of six novels, His Mother's Son (2003), The Stylist (2007), Weather Woman (2018) won a Nautilus Book Award, Sinking Islands (2021) won a Mary Sarton Award, Unleashed (2022), and Livid (2022). Her book, Vanishing, (a collection of five stories) (2020), won the 2018 Leapfrog Fiction Contest. Her short fiction and essays appeared in such periodicals as, The Los Angeles Times, Publisher's Weekly and others.
Her work as a dramatist included Mergatroid and When Petulia Comes. She studied film at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Her thesis film won a Student Academy Award. In New York she wrote, directed, and edited independent and industrial films. In Los Angeles she wrote feature-length screenplays and several teleplays for the CBS series, "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill."
Cai Emmons was diagnosed with ALS in February 2021. She died on January 2, 2023. at the age of 71.
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