Artist Profile: Denise Robbins

Denise S. Robbins is a Pushcart-nominated author from Madison, WI. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Barcelona Review, Gulf Coast Journal and many more. Her debut novel (“The Unmapping”) was published in June 2025 from Mareas at Bindery Books.

1) What inspires you most these days?

I love reading about the history and philosophy of science. Lately I've been into chaos theory. Scientists have been trying for decades to explain the unexplainable. Even if the closest they get is to explain how and why exactly something is unexplainable. Somehow I find that comforting. 

2) Do you have a fave author or novel?

There are three sets of books I recommend to as many people as I can. The Morning Star series by Karl Ove Knausgaard. The Three Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin. And the story collection Exhalation by Ted Chiang. In each of these books, you’re just as likely to follow a character buying groceries and making breakfast as you are to find them flung into a distant world. Sometimes both, within the span of a few pages. These three men are all my father.

3) What have been some meaningful insights you have had about the world at large through writing a book?

To write a book is to stumble upon a million tiny insights that add up to something bigger. It's hard to pinpoint any one specific insight. I can't find the quote, but I once read that Ursula LeGuin would get annoyed when someone asked her what her book is "about." She would just say, "Well, you should read it." True art can't be boiled down to simple statements. It can open up the world and fill it with meaning.