Donika Kelly (born early 1980s)[1] is an American poet and academic, who is Assistant Professor of English at the
University of Iowa, specializing in poetry writing and gender studies in contemporary American literature. She is the author of the chapbook Aviarium, published with fivehundred places in 2017, and the full-length collections Bestiary (
Graywolf Press, 2016) and The Renunciations (Graywolf Press, May 2021).
Kelly was born in
Los Angeles, California, in the early 1980s and moved with her family to
Arkansas in the late 1990s.[1]
Education
In 2005, Kelly received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from
Southern Arkansas University. She received a Master of Fine Arts from the
University of Texas in 2008. Her thesis was called The White Meat. In 2009, she obtained a Master of Arts from
Vanderbilt University.[1] 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. 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.[9]
"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