Alicia Wright is a poet, educator, editor, scholar, publisher, and critic.






 Originally from Rome, Georgia, Alicia Wright has received fellowships from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and from the University of Denver, where she is in her final year as a Ph.D. candidate in English & Literary Arts. She served as the 2020–2021 Denver Quarterly Editorial Fellow (Associate Editor), and is the editor of Annulet and publisher of Annulet Editions. She has been a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of Iowa, and she currently works as Managing Editor of The Iowa Review. She also hosts the poetry reading series Normie Creep in the Sacred Grove.

Her debut full-length collection of poetry, You’re Called By the Same Sound, is forthcoming from Thirdhand Books in 2025. Poetry appears or is forthcoming in the Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Ecotone, West Branch, and jubilat, among others. Essays and reviews appear in Full Stop, Los Angeles Review of Books, and on the Ploughshares blog. She has presented her research and scholarship at MLA and the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, and her essay, “Deepstep Come Shining’s Interlucidations" is forthcoming in Selves and Others: Essays on C.D. Wright (Under Discussion Series, University of Michigan Press). She is editing a cluster, “C.D. Wright in Context,” for Contemporaries at Post45.

As a freelance editor, writer, and teacher, Alicia is available for community-engaged poetry and narrative history workshops, class visits, literary criticism mentorship, poetry manuscript consultations, single poem or chapbook assessments, creative writing MFA or Ph.D. application consultations, or other ideas for teaching or editorial collaboration. Inquiries here are welcome. Follow her on X and Instagram.




Publications, Events, and 
Curriculum Vitae 






Poetry & Fiction


  1. “I Wouldn’t Mind Dying.” mercury firs, forthcoming. Web.
  2. “Holding the Line” and “Eclipse,” introduced by Mary Szybist. Kenyon Review, 2024. Print.
  3. “Chimney.” Send Me Press, 2023. Print.
  4. “Historical Eye.” Tyger Quarterly, 2023. Web.
  5. “Surveyor: John Seaborn, 1831.” Peripheries, 2022. Print.
  6. “I Won’t Write You a Country Poem.” Third Coast, 2022. Print.
  7. “Break Two Rules.” Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 2022. Print.
  8. “Elegy at Headwaters.” jubilat, 2021. Print.
  9. “Everything That Rises.” The Paris Review, 2021. Print.
  10. “Sister,” “Freshly Painted Cabinets,” and “Anamnesis.” DIAGRAM, 2021. Web. (Fiction)
  11. “From Grass to Grass.” Beloit Poetry Journal, 2020. Print. 
  12. “Sotto Voce, Abandoned Barn.” Tinderbox Poetry Journal, 2020. Web. 
  13. “Undated Incidents Concerning Occupation” and “In My Father’s House There Are Many Houses.” Cream City Review, 2020. Print. 
  14. “Town Under Lake.” The Boiler, 2020. Web. 
  15. “Requiem with Flamingo Flock.” West Branch, 2019. Print. 
  16. “Wraparound” and “Eclogue in Rills, 1944.” swamp pink, 2019. Print. 
  17. “Compress Pastoral,” “Buckshot,” and “Irradiation.” The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose, and Thought, 2019. Web. 
  18. “War Theory,” “Subject Matter Comes Winging Towards Them,” and “Human Bone, Worn Lyre.” Action, Spectacle, 2019. Web (currently unavailable). 
  19. “Never Lived in the City” and “Okefenokee.” Scalawag, 2019. Web. 
  20. “Jane in Starving Time.” Sycamore Review, 2018. Print. 
  21. “Removal Fort.” The Greensboro Review, 2018. Print. 
  22. “Lux Aurumque,” “Downshift,” and “Wreath.” Yalobusha Review, 2017. Web. 
  23. “Untitled, Rome, 1962” and “Honey in the Rock.” Flag + Void, 2017. Web. 
  24. “You’re Called By The Same Sound” and “Night Habit.” Poetry Northwest, 2017. Print. 
  25. “Benediction on Her Birthday Morning” and “Moon Children.” Radar Poetry, 2017. Web. 
  26. “Photograph: Alice Allgood Cooper on Her Wedding Trip, 1888,” “First Eclogue,” and “Cotton Block.” Ecotone, 2017. Print. 
  27. “On the Morning I Know I Know Walnut Grove Plantation, 2014” and “Cloud of Unknowing.” Southern Humanities Review, 2016. Print. 
  28. “His Father’s Wake.” (read aloud here by Ross Gay). Indiana Review, 2016. Print. 
  29. “Elegy with A Man’s Hands in the Garden” and “Origin Story.” The Literary Review, 2016. Print. 
  30. “Self-Portrait as St. Peter’s Youth Group Member” and “Elegy for Marilyn with Streaks of Silver.” Southeast Review, 2016. Print. 
  31. “We are Always Both in the Field.” New South, 2015. Print. 
  32. “Sotweed Factor Danse Macabre.” Prelude, 2015. Print.




SCHOLARSHIP, Criticism, Reviews, & Essays


  1. “Deepstep Come Shining’s Interlucidations.” Selves and Others: Essays on C.D. Wright, edited by Rachel Trousdale. University of Michigan Press, 2025. Print.
  2. “On Get The Money! Collected Prose (1961—1983) by Ted Berrigan.” The Poetry Project Newsletter, 2022. Print.
  3. “Recommendation: Uche Nduka’s Facing You.” The Paris Review Daily, 2021. Short essay. Web.
  4. “On Rue by Kathryn Nuernberger.” Full Stop, 2020. Web. Reprinted in Full Stop Reviews Supplement, 2021. Print. 
  5. “On Writing About Dorothy Wordsworth’s The Grasmere Journal.” Avidly: A Channel of the Los Angeles Review of Books, 2020. Web.
  6. “Reading A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia.” Ploughshares Blog, 2020. Web.
  7. “On Éireann Lorsung’s The Century’s Quiet Crises.” Ploughshares Blog, 2020. Web.
  8. “Zaina Alsous’s De-Extinction.” Ploughshares Blog, 2020. Web.
  9. “The Ecopoetics of Tracy Zeman’s Empire.” Ploughshares Blog, 2020. Web. 
  10. “The Historical Imperatives of Metta Sáma’s Swing At Your Own Risk.” Ploughshares Blog, 2020. Web. 
  11. “Kimiko Hahn’s Sincere Assemblages.” Ploughshares Blog, 2020. Web. 
  12. “Form, Sound, and Thought in Pimone Triplett’s Supply Chain.” Ploughshares Blog, 2020. Web. 
  13. “Denise Levertov’s Poetics and Politics.” Ploughshares Blog, 2020. Web.  
  14. “my (small press) writing day.” Rob McLennan’s Blog, 2019. Web. 
  15. “This, being absorbed: Gale Marie Thompson’s Soldier On.” Heavy Feather Review, 2016.




selected Conferences, panels, class visits, & presentations


  1. Upcoming  Paper: “Where nothing is lost”: besmilr brigham’s Sensuous Attention. ALA Symposium on American Poetry. November 2024.
  2. Upcoming Class Visit. Yale University: Literary Production–Poetry. November 2024.
  3. Upcoming Reading with Kelly Krumrie and Matt Broaddus. Counterpath, Denver, CO. January 25th, 2025.
  4. “The Making of a Literary Magazine.” Eleventh Hour Lecture Series: The Iowa Summer Writing Festival, University of Iowa. July 2024.
  5. Class Visit. Beloit College: Undergraduate Poetry Workshop. March 2024. Virtual. 
  6. Class Visit. The Writer’s Foundry at St. Joseph’s University: MFA Practicum. March 2024.
  7. “‘The Sap Has Gone Out of the Trees’: A.R. Ammons' Agroecological Forms.” The Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, February 2024.
  8. Class Visit. Interlochen Arts Academy, Literary Publications. January 2024.
  9. Panelist. “Twenty Years of Small Press Publishing.” TYPO Fest, April 2023.
  10. Panelist. “’Heaved from the Earth’: Reading and Transcribing besmilr brigham.” TYPO Fest, April 2023. 
  11. Panelist. “’Is There a Doctor in the Room?’ How to Apply, Survive, and Thrive in a Ph.D. Program.” AWP Conference, March 2023.
  12. “C.D. Wright’s Objectivist Affinities.” The Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, February 2022. 
  13. “Poetry’s Signposts: Site Markers and Trails as Transhistorical Forms.” New Orleans Poetry Festival, March 2021. 
  14. “Documentary Practices, Lyric Impulses, Confessional Outcomes: Reconfiguring an Adaptive Poetry Practice.” South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference, November 2020. 
  15. “Remixing, Refusals, and Reinterrogations in Contemporary Southern Experimental Poetry.” Modern Language Association Conference, January 2020.




selected Readings, INTRODUCTIONS, & EVENTS


  1. Featured Reader. Small Press Reading 1. New Orleans Poetry Festival. April 2024.
  2. Visiting Writer. Reading with Ryan Skrabalak. Carthage College, Kenosha, WI. April 2024.
  3. Featured Reader. Reading with Ryan Skrabalak and CJ Scruton. Milwaukee, WI. April 10th, 2024.
  4. Featured Reader, The Splice Reading Series. Saturn Bar, New Orleans, Louisiana. February 2024.
  5. Introduction for Timmy Straw. Prairie Lights Bookstore, October 2023.
  6. Introduction for Cody-Rose Clevidence. Faculty Reading, Iowa Writers’ Workshop, October 2023.
  7. Introduction for Dabin Jeong, Normie Creep in the Sacred Grove. September 2023.
  8. Introduction for Lisa Low, Normie Creep in the Sacred Grove. September 2023.
  9. Introductions for Olivia Sio Tse and Caylin Capra Thomas, Normie Creep in the Sacred Grove. May 2023.
  10. Introductions for Emily Bark Brown and Tahjia Brantley, Normie Creep in the Sacred Grove. May 2023.
  11. Moderator. Annulet Reading: A Rural Inquiry. New Orleans Poetry Festival, March 2023.
  12. Featured Reader, TYPO Fest, Fayetteville, Arkansas. March 2023.
  13. Host, AWP Seattle Off-Site Event: Good Times Bad Bar, hosted by the CSU Poetry Center, Rescue Press, Annulet, and The Dodge. March 2023.
  14. Featured Reader, Middlebury College Alumni Reading, hosted by New England Review. June 2022.
  15. Featured Reader, AWP San Antonio. Poetry on the Riverwalk. March 2020.
  16. Featured Reader, Reproductive Justice Fundraiser. Counterpath Press, Denver, Colorado. June 2019.
  17. Featured Reader, 5x5 Reading Series: University of Wyoming Art Museum, September 2018.
  18. Featured Reader, Mission Creek Festival Lit Crawl, Iowa City. April 2017.




Interviews


  1. Train/Car, Episode #5: Alicia Wright. February 2023. Podcast.
  2. Poetry Mini-Interviews: Alicia Wright. March 2021. Web.
  3. NER Interns: Where Are They Now? February 2021. Web.
  4. Interview with 2016 Poetry Prize Winner Alicia Wright. Indiana Review. May 2017. Web.
  5. Contributor Spotlight, Southeast Review. October 2015. Web.






Selected Curriculum Vitae

Books

“You’re Called By The Same Sound,” Poetry, full length. Thirdhand Books (May 2025)

“The Collected Poems of besmilr brigham,” in progress.


EDUCATION


University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
Doctor of Philosophy Candidate: English & Literary Arts
Committee: Dr. Graham Foust (director), Dr. Bin Ramke, Dr. Rachel Feder
Areas of Specialization: 
    Ecopoetics of the U.S. South, 20th & 21st century poetics
    Narrative theory
    Literary magazine and publishing practices
   
The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Iowa City, Iowa
Master of Fine Arts: Creative Writing, Poetry: May 2016
Committee: Professor Mark Levine (advisor), Dr. Elizabeth Willis, Professor Robyn Schiff
Thesis: You’re Called By The Same Sound

Columbia Publishing Course, Columbia University, New York, New York
Master’s Certificate: Summer 2012

Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont
Bachelor of Arts: English and American Literatures, February 2012



teaching experience


Visiting Assistant Professor of English
University of Iowa
Courses Taught: ENGL 2020, Foundations of Creative Writing

Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Denver
Courses Taught: ENGL 1007, Art of Poetry
                          ENGL 1000, Introduction to Creative Writing

Adjunct Assistant Professor of English
University of Iowa
Courses Taught: CW 4745, The Sentence: Strategies for Writing

Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Iowa
Courses Taught: CW 2875, Poetry Writing
                          CW 4875, Undergraduate Poetry Workshop



Service to the university


Poetry Reader, Conversations Editor, Poetry Editor, Associate Editor, Managing Editor: Denver Quarterly, University of Denver

Graduate Student Liaison, University of Denver: Poetry Faculty Search Committee, Spring 2019

University of Iowa Arts Ambassador/Project Manager, Deep Map Maquoketa, 2016—2017



Service to the profession


Founder and Editor: Annulet and Annulet Editions, 2020—present
Co-editor: Collected Poems of besmilr brigham (research and transcription ongoing)
Cluster Editor, Contemporaries at Post45: C.D. Wright in Context (forthcoming)
Linkages Lecture Series Host, 2023—present
Annulet’s Critical Circle: Literary Criticism Workshop, 2023—present
Poetry Reading Series Host: Normie Creep in the Sacred Grove, Iowa City, Iowa. 2023—present; Ectoplasm, Iowa City, Iowa, 2015—2017
Manuscript Reader: Alice James Books, 2023—present     
Chapbook Contest Reader: BOAAT Press, 2019
Poetry Reader, The Iowa Review, 2014—2016
Fiction Reader/Editorial Assistant, Guernica, 2012—2014
Editorial and Subsidiary Rights Intern, Grove/Atlantic, 2012
Intern/Fiction Reader, New England Review, 2012



selected honors & Awards


Finalist, Scribner Poetry Open Reading Period, 2024
Finalist, National Poetry Series, 2022
Third Coast, Finalist for the 2022 Poetry Contest
Finalist, Emory Poetry Fellowship 2021—2022
Finalist, National Poetry Series, 2021
Finalist, Poets Out Loud Prize, Fordham University Press, 2021
Finalist, A. Poulin Jr. Prize, BOA Editions, 2021
Denver Quarterly Editorial Fellowship, 2020—2021
Beloit Poetry Journal, Semifinalist for the 2020 Adrienne Rich Award
Finalist, Lighthouse Poetry Series, CSU Poetry Center, 2020
Finalist, Copper Canyon Open Reading Period, 2019
Finalist, Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award, 2019
Sycamore Review, Winner of the 2017 Wabash Prize in Poetry, selected by Shane McCrae
Southern Humanities Review, Finalist for the 2016 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize
Indiana Review, Winner of the 2016 Poetry Prize, selected by Camille Rankine
New South, Winner of the 2015 New Writing Contest, selected by Roger Reeves