Vanessa Veselka (born March 14, 1969) is an American writer best known for her 2012 PEN / Robert W.
Bingham prize prize-winning debut novel Zazen.
Her nonfiction has appeared in Salon, The Atlantic, GQ, Maximum Rock'n'Roll, Bitch Magazine, and The American Reader.In 2013, she was a chosen as a MacDowell Fellow, and her November 2012 GQ piece entitled "The Truck Stop Killer" is part of the 2013 edition of Best American Essays.