{{Short description|American poet (born early 1980s)}} {{use mdy dates|date=September 2024}} {{Infobox writer | name = Donika Kelly | image = Donika Kelly 2025 Texas Book Festival.jpg | caption = Kelly at the 2025 Texas Book Festival | birth_name = | birth_date = early 1980s | birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Academic and poet | alma_mater = Southern Arkansas University (BA)<br>University of Texas at Austin (MFA)<br>Vanderbilt University (MA,PhD) | awards = Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (2017)<br>Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (2022)<br>NEA Fellowship (2023) | notableworks = ''The Renunciations''<br>''Bestiary'' | years_active = | spouse = Melissa Febos | children = | website = {{URL|http://donikakelly.com/}} }} '''Donika Kelly''' (born 1983)<ref name="LARB interview">[https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/conversation-nikky-finney-donika-kelly/#! "A Conversation Between Nikky Finney and Donika Kelly"] (Nikky Finney interviews Donika Kelly), ''Los Angeles Review of Books'', November 14, 2016.</ref> is an American poet and academic. She is the author of the chapbook ''Aviarium'' (2017) and three full-length poetry collections ''Bestiary'' (2016), ''The Renunciations'' (2021), and ''The Natural Order of Things'' (2025).
==Early life and education== Kelly was born in Los Angeles, California in the early 1980s and moved with her family to Arkansas in the late 1990s. Her family still lives there.<ref name="LARB interview" />
In 2005, Kelly received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Southern Arkansas University.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-02-21 |title=Dr. Donika Kelly wins $10,000 prize for poetry collection |url=https://www.magnoliareporter.com/education/colleges_universities/article_64eebfac-16db-11e8-a9be-7bc6652a661a.html |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=Magnolia Reporter - Magnolia, Arkansas News |language=en}}</ref> She received a Master of Fine Arts from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin in 2008.<ref name=":2" /> Her thesis was called ''The White Meat.''<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=EWL Department Chooses Poet Donika Kelly's 'Bestiary' for 2019 Summer Reading |url=https://www.mmm.edu/live/news/3249-ewl-department-chooses-poet-donika-kellys-bestiary |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=www.mmm.edu |language=en}}</ref>
In 2009, she obtained a Master of Arts from Vanderbilt University. Her thesis, ''Framing the Subject in Natasha Trethewey's Bellocq's Ophelia'', analyzed Natasha Trethewey's book on Ernest J. Bellocq's photography, specifically those of unnamed mixed-race prostitutes. Kelly finished her Ph.D. in English literature from Vanderbilt University in August 2013, where she specialized in American literature and film studies.<ref name="LARB interview" /> Her dissertation was titled ''Reading against Genre: Contemporary Westerns and the Problem of White Manhood''. In it, Kelly explains how the way in which society perceives the role of white men is largely influenced by the way they are portrayed in media, with a particular focus on contemporary Western films.<ref>[https://www.bennington.edu/events/reading-donika-kelly "Reading | Donika Kelly"], Bennington College, November 2, 2016.</ref>
== Career == Her poems have been published in ''The New Yorker'', ''The Atlantic'', ''Foglifter'', ''The Paris Review'', ''Gulf Coast,'' ''Indiana Review'', ''The Virginia Quarterly Review,'' and elsewhere.<ref name=2025interview /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Donika Kelly, English, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, The University of Iowa|url=https://english.uiowa.edu/people/donika-kelly|access-date=January 18, 2021|website=english.uiowa.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/authors/31913/donika-kelly|title=Donika Kelly|journal=The Paris Review|issue=227|date=Winter 2018|access-date=June 20, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://foglifterjournal.com/2020/09/03/dear-by-donika-kelly/|first=Donika|last=Kelly|title=Dear—|journal=Foglifter|volume=Two|page=136|date=September 3, 2020}}</ref><ref name=poetrycenter /> She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''New Daughters of Africa'', edited by Margaret Busby.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://nbmagazine.co.uk/new-daughters-of-africa-an-international-anthology-of-writing-by-women-of-african-descent-edited-by-margaret-busby/|title=New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent edited by Margaret Busby|first=Paul|last=Burke|magazine=NB|date=March 28, 2019|access-date=June 20, 2021|archive-date=September 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922180654/https://nbmagazine.co.uk/new-daughters-of-africa-an-international-anthology-of-writing-by-women-of-african-descent-edited-by-margaret-busby/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
''Bestiary'' is the winner of the 2015 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the 2017 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry, and the 2018 Kate Tufts Discovery Award.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Foundation |first=Poetry |date=2024-06-02 |title=Donika Kelly |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/donika-kelly |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=Poetry Foundation |language=en}}</ref> It was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/people/donika-kelly/|title=Donika Kelly {{!}} Longlist, 2016 National Book Awards|publisher=National Book Foundation|access-date=June 20, 2021}}</ref> It was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and a Publishing Triangle Award in 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/previous-winners-3/?a_search&award_year&award_classifications&award_status&award_categories=lesbian-poetry|title=Previous Winners|publisher=Lambda Literary|access-date=June 20, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://publishingtriangle.org/awards/audre-lorde-lesbian-poetry/|title=The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry|website=The Publishing Triangle|access-date=June 20, 2021}}</ref>
''The Renunciations'' won the 2022 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Poetry.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kelly wins 2022 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in poetry {{!}} Iowa Now - The University of Iowa |url=https://now.uiowa.edu/news/2022/04/kelly-wins-2022-anisfield-wolf-book-award-poetry|date=April 20, 2022 |access-date=2024-06-01 |website=now.uiowa.edu |language=en}}</ref> It was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schaub |first=Michael |date=2022-02-22 |title=The Renunciations by Donika Kelly: 2021 Poetry Finalist |url=https://www.bookcritics.org/2022/02/22/the-renunciations-by-donika-kelly-2021-poetry-finalist/ |access-date=2024-06-01 |website=National Book Critics Circle |language=en-US}}</ref>
Kelly is a Cave Canem Foundation Graduate Fellow.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Poets at the End of the World: A Reading at Cave Canem |url=https://poets.org/event/poets-end-world-reading-cave-canem |website=poets.org}} Retrieved 2026-05-29.</ref><ref name=poetrycenter>{{Cite web|title=University of Arizona Poetry Center, Donika Kelly |url=https://poetry.arizona.edu/people/donika-kelly |website=poetry.arizona.edu}} Retrieved 2026-05-29.</ref> She is the recipient of a Lannan Residency fellowship and a fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Donika Kelly |url=https://lannan.org/bios/donika-kelly |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=Lannan Foundation |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> She received a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry, and won the 2025 Pushcart Prize.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Donika Kelly, National Endowment for the Arts 2023, Poetry |url=https://www.arts.gov/impact/literary-arts/creative-writing-fellows/donika-kelly |website=arts.gov}} Retrieved 2026-05-29.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Writers Studio Celebrates the 2025 Pushcart Prize |url=https://www.writerstudio.com/2025/02/02/the-writers-studio-celebrates-pushcart-2023-2-2/ |website=writerstudio.com}} Retrieved 2026-05-29.</ref>
Kelly is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Iowa, where she teaches creative writing.<ref name=2025interview>{{Cite web |title=Interview// “On the Boundaries of the Self and the Saying of the Unknown”: A Conversation with Donika Kelly |url=https://www.poetrynw.org/interview-on-the-boundaries-of-the-self-and-the-saying-of-the-unknown-a-conversation-with-donika-kelly/ |last=Luborsky |first=Alexa |website=poetrynw.org}} Retrieved 2026-05-29.</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=An Interview with Donika Kelly – West Branch |url=https://westbranch.blogs.bucknell.edu/an-interview-with-donika-kelly/11/2021/ |access-date=2024-06-02 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=CLAS honors faculty with 2024 teaching and engagement awards |url=https://clas.uiowa.edu/news/2024/08/clas-honors-faculty-2024-teaching-and-engagement-awards |website=University of Iowa}} Retrieved 2026-05-29.</ref> She has previously taught at the City University of New York's Baruch College and St. Bonaventure University.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=This poet releases the beasts to discover her humanity |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/poetry/poet-beasts-donika-kelly|website=pbs.gov}} Retrieved 2026-05-29.</ref>
== Personal life == She lives in Iowa with her wife, the writer Melissa Febos.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-04-10|title=Rebel girls|url=https://www.salon.com/2012/04/10/rebel_girls/|first=Melissa|last=Febos|access-date=2020-12-22|website=Salon|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-10 |title=Iowa English Professor Donika Kelly receives National Endowment for the Arts fellowship {{!}} College of Liberal Arts and Sciences {{!}} The University of Iowa |url=https://clas.uiowa.edu/news/iowa-english-professor-donika-kelly-receives-national-endowment-arts-fellowship |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |language=en}}</ref>
== Awards and honors == * National Book Award, Longlist, 2016<ref name="LARB interview" /> * Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets, June Fellow, 2004 * James A. Michener Fellow in Writing, 2005–2008 * Provost's Graduate Fellowship, Vanderbilt University, 2008–2013 * University Fellowship, Vanderbilt University, 2008–2013 * Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, 2009, 2011, 2013 * Thomas Daniel Young Award for Excellence in Teaching, Vanderbilt, 2013 * Bayard Rustin Advocacy Award, Office of LGBTQI Life, Vanderbilt, 2015 * Cave Canem Poetry Prize, Winner, 2015<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Cave Canem » Blog Archive Events for June 2024 |url=https://cavecanempoets.org/calendar/cave-canem-poetry-prize-reading-donika-kelly/ |access-date=2024-06-02 |language=en}}</ref> * Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 2022<ref>{{Cite web|date=April 5, 2022|title=Introducing Our Class of 2022|first=Tara|last=Jefferson |url=https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/2022/04/class-of-2022/ |access-date=April 6, 2022 |website=Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards}}</ref> * National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry, 2023 * Pushcart Prize, 2025
==Bibliography== {{Incomplete list|date=July 2020}} {{bots|deny=Citation bot}} === Poetry === ;Collections * {{cite book |title=Bestiary |location=Minneapolis |publisher=Graywolf Press |year=2016 |isbn=9781555977580}} * {{cite book |title=The Renunciations |location=Minneapolis |publisher=Graywolf Press |year=2021 |isbn=9781644450536}}<ref group=lower-alpha>Briefly reviewed in the [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/31/albert-and-the-whale-theres-no-such-thing-as-an-easy-job-gold-diggers-and-the-renunciations May 31, 2021 issue] of ''The New Yorker'', p.63.</ref> * ''The Natural Order of Things'': Graywolf Press. 2025. {{ISBN|978-1644453599}}. <ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-10-26 |title=What Black Thing Have I Seen at a Museum? |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/what-black-thing-have-i-seen-at-a-museum |access-date=2025-12-16 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books}}</ref> ;Chapbooks * ''Aviarium'' (Fivehundred Places, 2017)
;List of poems {|class='wikitable sortable' width='90%' |- !width=25%|Title !|Year !|First published !|Reprinted/collected |- |From the catalogue of cruelty |2020 |{{cite magazine |author=Kelly, Donika |date=January 6, 2020 |title=From the catalogue of cruelty |magazine=The New Yorker |volume=95 |issue=43 |pages=22–23 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/06/from-the-catalogue-of-cruelty <!--accessdate=2020-07-14-->}} | |- |} <!-- Move entries below into the table above --> *"Sanctuary", "Where We End Up" and "Brood", in Margaret Busby (ed.), ''New Daughters of Africa'', 2019. *"Bedtime Story for the Bruised Heart", "Cartography as an Act of Remembering", "The Three Birds of the Milky Way" and "Labyrinth", ''Sinister Wisdom'', 2017 *"The Oracle Remembers the Future Cannot Be Avoided", "Gun Control (Mama)", and "Primer: D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths", ''Tin House'', 2017 *"In the Chapel of St. Mary's" and "Self-Portrait in Labyrinth", ''Washington Square'', 2017 *"Partial Hospitalization", ''Buzzfeed Reader'', 2016 *"Love Poem: Chimera", ''Gulf Coast'', 2016 *"Construction", "Revelation: Black Bear", "Revelation: White Bear", and "Pony", ''Rockhurst Review'', 2016 *"Bower Bird", "Swallow", and "How to Be Alone", ''Virginia Quarterly Review'', 2016 *"Love Poem: Centaur" and "Love Poem Mermaid", ''Pleiades'', 2016 *"Fourth Grade Autobiography", ''Nashville Review'', 2016 *"Handsome Is", "Little Box", and "Love Letter", ''Gris-Gris'', 2016 *"Acheron" and "Hymn", ''Cincinnati Review'', 2015 *"Ocelot", ''Eleven Eleven Journal'', 2015 *"Statistics", ''Rove'', 2015 *"A Man Goes West and Falls Off His Horse in the Desert" and "Self-Portrait as a Door", ''Tupelo Quarterly'', 2013 *"Arkansas Love Poem", ''The Best of Kore Press'', 2013 *"Love Poem: Griffon", ''West Branch'', 2013 *"Last Rites", ''RHINO'', 2013 *"Tender" and "What Gay Porn Has Done for Me", ''Bloom'', 2012 *"Love Poem: Minotaur" and "Sonnet in Which Only One Bird Appears", ''Vinyl'', 2012 *"The Yard", "Love Song", "Whale", "Arkansas Love Song", and "Where She Is Opened. Where She Is Closed", ''The Feminist Wire'', 2011 *"Archaeology" and "Perhaps You Tire of Birds", ''Crazyhorse'', 2011 *"Whale", ''Hayden's Ferry Review'', 2011
=== Theses === * {{cite thesis <!--|author=Kelly, Donika --> |date=2009 |title=Framing the Subject in Natasha Trethewey's ''Bellocq's Ophelia'' |type=MA |publisher=Vanderbilt University}} * {{cite thesis <!--|author=Kelly, Donika |author-mask=1--> |date=2013 |title=Reading Against Genre: Contemporary Westerns and the Problem of White Manhood |type=PhD |publisher=Vanderbilt University}} ——————— ;Notes {{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
== Sources == * Kelly, Donika (2013). ''Reading against Genre: Contemporary Westerns and the Problem of White Manhood'' * Kelly, Donika (2009), ''Framing the Subject in Natasha Trethewey's Bellocq's Ophelia''
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * {{Official website|http://donikakelly.com/}} * [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/donika-kelly Profile] at Poetry Foundation * [https://foglifterjournal.com/2017/12/27/pushcart-darlings-the-foglifter-interview-with-donika-kelly/ "Pushcart Darlings: The Foglifter Interview with Donika Kelly"], Foglifter Press, December 27, 2017.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Donika}} Category:21st-century American poets Category:American LGBTQ poets Category:American women academics Category:LGBTQ people from Arkansas Category:LGBTQ people from California Category:Living people Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:Poets from Arkansas Category:Poets from Los Angeles Category:Southern Arkansas University alumni Category:St. Bonaventure University faculty Category:The New Yorker people Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni Category:Vanderbilt University alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century American women poets