McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, a leading online humor journal, also a venue for Alfred University creative writing professor

Alfred University Professor of English Juliana Gray's satirical piece "Escape Room Challenge: Your European Airbnb" was published recently in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, a leading online literary magazine with an emphasis on literary humor.

It's the eighteenth humor piece by Gray to appear in McSweeney's, described as one of "the most innovative media companies in the U.S." She also has co-authored two additional pieces published in McSweeney's, including a send-up of the movie Cocaine Bear that she wrote with Alfred University undergraduate Steven Jackson '23.

McSweeney's recently announced Gray's "Escape Room Challenge" is the fifth most read McSweeney's piece for the month of August 2025. Her 2018 satiric poem, "The Incel Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," also was included in the McSweeney's anthology, Keep Scrolling until You Feel Something.

Contacted by Alfred University, McSweeney's Internet Tendency described Gray's writing as "hilarious" and "quick-witted," not mention "sublime."

"It's clear that whatever topic she's writing about she's very familiar with, so there's an immediate authenticity to Juliana's satire…Her humor writing never fails to draw laughs, and the subjects she chooses to write about (higher-ed, gender, pop culture, lit parodies) are all in our wheelhouse."

McSweeney's began publishing Gray's satire in 2014, with her monologue "Philip Marlowe Attends a Court-Mandated Women's Studies Workshop." The piece spoofs Chandler's writing style, along with a few issues relating to modern women's studies. Gray handles her jokes with aplomb, and her ear for Chandler's style is spot on.

"I'd been reading McSweeney's for a while," Gray says of her decision to begin writing material that might interest the online magazine. "It occurred to me, 'Oh, I can do that.'"

Gray's poetry has been published in numerous literary magazines and in three volumes, The Man Under My Skin (2005), Roleplay (2012), Honeymoon Palsy (2017). She has also published numerous chapbooks, including Anne Boleyn's Sleeve (2013), which won the Winged City Chapbook Press Poetry Prize.

Her essays also have been published in numerous venues, including "The Art of Murder" (The Florida Review, March 2025) and "Lizzie Borden and the Forty Whacks: Notes on a Rhyme (West Branch, Fall 2023).

Born and raised in Alabama, Gray has taught in Alfred University's Division of English since 2006, after receiving her PhD from the University of Cincinnati. She teaches creative writing classes and First Year Experience, among numerous other subjects. She also directs Alfred University's Honors Program.