Kira Witkin is a reporter and audio producer based in Pittsburgh.
Kira is writing a reported memoir about UFO mania and her attempts to understand her alien-chasing father.
She is also an assistant producer for the Audacy orginal podcast Cement City, hosted by Jeanne Marie Laskas. Cement City was a New York Times Best Podcast of 2024.
Current Projects
Her work is published in Esquire, NPR, The Sun magazine, The Missouri Review, Elle, and other publications.
Selected Publications
Cement City is a finalist for a National Magazine Award in Podcasting and two AMBIE awards: Podcast of the Year and Best Scriptwriting, Nonfiction.
Kira is the recipient of scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the University of Pittsburgh, Community of Writers, and the Macondo Writers Workshop. Her writing won first place in the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference Literary Awards and the University of Pittsburgh’s Creative Writing Awards.
Her essays were also finalists in the Kenyon Review Short Nonfiction Contest, the DISQUIET Literary Prize (from 1,200 submissions), the Lit Fest Emerging Writer Fellowship, and the New Millennium Writing Awards.
Selected Awards
Kira is an MFA candidate in Journalism/Nonfiction Writing and Audio Production at the University of Pittsburgh. She was previously a Vice President at Morgan Stanley, where she wrote speeches for C-suite executives. She has experience reporting for NPR, The Dallas Morning News, and The World Association of Newspapers.
Work Experience