About

Emily Van Kley was raised on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula but now lives with her partner in Olympia, Washington, where she writes, teaches and performs aerial acrobatics, and nurses a near-pathological longing for snow. Her poetry collections are The Cold and the Rust, winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize, and Arrhythmia, (forthcoming Nov 2021) both from Persea Books. She has received fellowships from The Civitella Ranieri Foundation and the Vermont Studio Center. Her work can be found in numerous publications and anthologies, including The Iowa Review, Gulf Coast, the Gettysburg Review, Best New Poets 2013, and Best American Poetry 2017. Emily holds an MFA from Eastern Washington University and has taught composition and creative writing at the high school and college levels.