May Spangler was born and raised in Paris. She graduated with a master’s degree in architecture from the École des Beaux-Arts and worked in architectural firms in Paris and Atlanta. She received a PhD in French Literature from Emory University in Atlanta, where she taught courses combining her interest in architecture and literature for eleven years.
Her literary criticism essays have appeared in Études Françaises, Diderot Studies, Francophonie, French Review, Littératures, and Symposium. Her short fiction in French and English won the Atelier Z and the tales2Inspire Awards, and she received the Best Manuscript Sample for The Architect’s Eye at the Atlanta Writers Conference. May is the author of a monograph, Monstrer Diderot (Ph.D. dissertation); a memoir, Papa a dit, Maman aussi (Paris: Edition Unicité, 2015); and a textbook and teacher’s manual, Paris in Architecture, Literature, and Art (New York: Peter Lang, 2018). May’s memoir, The Architect’s Eye, Parisian Girl Meets Southern Boy, is under contract with Legacy Book Press and will be published in 2027. She is currently working on her next book, Memoir of a Parisian.
“I wanted to understand what drives some of us to leave everything we know—family, friends, home—for a new country with uncertain careers, language barriers, and the biases that come with them. After writing my book, the risk still doesn’t make sense, but I’m glad I took it.” —May Spangler, on why she wrote The Architect’s Eye.