cleo tamara aukland

✳ Winner of the 2026 Bread Loaf Fiction Writing Prize

✳ Selected presenter of fiction at the inaugural Bread Loaf Symposium

essay

I MISS MY JEWISH BUMP

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MY IRAQI JEWISH GRANDMA AND I BOTH LIVE IN OUR DREAMS

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creative writer, essayist, wildflower identifier

Cleo Aukland (she/her/hers) is a queer Sephardic Jewish writer based in Brooklyn. A warm sweater enthusiast, she writes fiction and creative nonfiction, and received her Masters in English in 2026. The winner of the 2026 Bread Loaf Fiction prize, her work has been published in Hey Alma, several small literary magazines, and the Bread Loaf Journal. She also hosted the Bread Loaf Blue Parlor Reading Series in 2026 and co-edited the Bread Loaf Journal in 2025. She was also selected as an inaugural presenter at the Bread Loaf Symposium, sharing a short story in progress about Jewish identity.

Cleo is very hard working and driven by her thirst for knowledge. She loves great diners, hiking, Sabrina Carpenter, and swimming in frigid Maine coast waters. She is happiest when she is creating.

EDUCATION
Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English, Class of 2026—MA in English
Colby College, Class of 2017—BA in French Studies and Creative Writing