Vanessa Veselka (born March 14, 1969) is an American writer best known for her 2020 novel The Great Offshore Grounds, which won the Oregon Book Award[1] and was longlisted for the U.S. National Book Award.

[3] Her November 2012 GQ piece entitled "The Truck-Stop Killer" was included under the title "Highway of Lost Girls" in the 2013 edition of Best American Essays.

[4] Her nonfiction has dealt with issues of women, violence and the road ("Green Screen," The Truck Stop Killer") as well as rape, mental health ("The Collapsible Woman") and unionization ("the Wake of Protest")("These Memory Care Workers Went on Strike to Save Lives).

[6] Veselka's first novel Zazen was serialized online by Arthur Magazine,[7] then published by Richard Nash's imprint Red Lemonade.

[14] Veselka's bio says she has been "a teenage runaway, a sex-worker, a union organizer, and a student of paleontology.