Headshot of poet Kristi Maxwell wearing a blue long sleeve blouse and a necklace in front of a blue painted wall

Born and raised in East Tennessee, Kristi Maxwell earned an MFA from the University of Arizona, where she served as editor of Sonora Review, and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing along with a graduate certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Cincinnati, where she was an Elliston Poetry Fellow. Maxwell is the author of seven books of poems, including My My (Saturnalia Books, 2020); Hush Sessions (2009), editor’s choice for the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize; Realm Sixty-four (2008), editor’s choice for the Sawtooth Poetry Prize and a finalist for the National Poetry Series; and Re- (2011), also a finalist for the National Poetry Series. Recipient of a 2022 Distinguished Faculty Award in Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activity, she is an associate professor of English at the University of Louisville and a 2022–23 American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow.

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