Kimberly Priest

Biography

Kimberly Ann Priest is the author of Slaughter the One Bird (Sundress Publications)–a finalist for the American Best Book Awards–and the chapbooks The Optimist Shelters in Place (Small Harbor Press), Parrot Flower (Glass Poetry Press, ), Still Life (PANK), and White Goat Black Sheep (FLP). She is an MFA graduate in Creative Writing from New England College, already holding an MA in English Language & Literature from Central Michigan University. A proud Michigan native, she has taught composition and creative writing courses for Michigan State University, Central Michigan University, and Alma College, and participated in local initiatives to increase awareness concerning sexual assault, survivorship, and healing through artistic expression. Her writing carefully observes the intersections of gender violence, narrative identities, embodiment, trauma, motherhood, and environmental issues as well as survival, wildness, joy & grief. Winner of the Heartland Poetry Prize in the New Poetry from the Midwest Anthology by New American Press (2019), her poetry has appeared in several literary journals including North Dakota Quarterly, Salamander, Borderlands, RELIEF, RiverSedge, The Meadow, and The Berkeley Poetry Review. She has served as a book reviewer for NewPages, editorial intern with Sundress Publications, summer intern for Black Earth Institute, and received residencies from Writer’s House PGH (as the James Dolan Writer in Residence), Owsley Fork Writer’s Sanctuary, Monson Arts and Sundress Academy. Currently, she is an associate poetry editor for Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry.

Research Areas

Gender Violence; Narrative Identities; Dark Rhetorics; Body Politics; Poetics & Hybrid Texts; Trauma; Motherhood; Environmental Issues; Spirituality & Mental Health

Education

MFA, New England College

MA, Central Michigan University

BA, Regent University

Research and Academic Affiliations

Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry

Association of Writers and Writing Programs

Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature