All That Life Can Afford

Emily Everett is an American author and editor. She grew up in Massachusetts and went on to study English and music at Smith College, an all-women’s school in Northampton, Massachusetts. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, Everett studied abroad in London, England. She later moved to London, England, and pursued a master’s degree in British literature from Queen Mary University. She lived and worked overseas from 2009 to 2013.

Everett’s personal history informs her debut novel, All That Life Can Afford. Like Everett, the novel’s heroine, Anna Byrne, grows up in Massachusetts, attends both Smith College and Queen Mary University, and has a passion for British literature. Everett’s personal life acts as the narrative soil for All That Life Can Afford and the basis for her protagonist’s coming-of-age tale. The time that Everett spent in the UK is the same temporal setting for Anna’s first-person account, suggesting that Everett’s time in England during the post-Brexit and 2008 American financial crash era inspired Anna’s socioeconomic circumstances in the novel.

Outside of her novelistic work, Everett works as the managing editor for the literary magazine The Common. Her shorter works of fiction and nonfiction have also appeared in well-known literary publications, including “The New York Times Modern Love column, the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House, and Mississippi Review” (“