Chelsea Rathburn (born

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

) is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. Chelsea Rathburn was raised in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, and earned a bachelor's degree at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

and an MFA in creative writing at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

. Her work has appeared in ''Poetry'', ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ''The New Criterion'', ''Hudson Review'', and ''Pleiades'', and other journals. She works as a marketing writer and an assistant professor of writing and English at

Young Harris College Young Harris College is a private Methodist-affiliated liberal arts college in Young Harris, Georgia, United States. History Origins The school was founded in 1886 by Artemas Lester, a circuit-riding Methodist minister who wanted to pr ...

. In recent years, she has also been elevated to the rank of director of the university's creative writing program, a significant rise in status and prestige at the university. She lives in

Young Harris, Georgia Young Harris is a city in Towns County, Georgia, United States. The population was 899 at the 2010 census. Young Harris is home to Young Harris College, after which it was named. Geography Young Harris is located at (34.934233, -83.847681). The ...

, with her husband, poet James Davis May, and their daughter. While she is best known for her poetry, she is also notable for her nonfiction writing, including short- and long-form prose pieces, concerning her beliefs about home, views on class, and poverty. At present, she is perhaps most excited about her upcoming prose piece on the air traffic controllers' strike. In March 2019, Rathburn was named poet laureate of the state of Georgia, succeeding

Judson Mitcham Judson Mitcham (born 1948) is an American author and poet best known for being the state of Georgia's tenth official poet laureate between 2012 and 2019. He is the only writer to win the Townsend Prize for Fiction twice. His poetry is featured re ...

Awards

* 2012

Autumn House Press Autumn House Press is an independent, non-profit literary publishing company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. History Autumn House Press was founded in 1998 by Michael Simms when prominent American publishers, driven by e ...

Poetry Prize, selected by

Stephen Dunn Stephen Elliot Dunn (June 24, 1939June 24, 2021) was an American poet and educator who authored twenty-one collections of poetry. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 2001 collection, ''Different Hours,'' and received an Academy Award i ...

* 2009

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

poetry fellowship * 2005

Richard Wilbur Award The Richard Wilbur Award is an American poetry award and publishing prize given by University of Evansville in Indiana. It is named in honor of the American poet Richard Wilbur and was established by William Baer, a professor at the University o ...

, selected by

Timothy Steele Timothy Steele (born January 22, 1948) is an American poet, who generally writes in meter and rhyme. His early poems, which began appearing in the 1970s in such magazines as ''Poetry, The Southern Review'', and X. J. Kennedy's ''Counter/Measures' ...

for ''The Shifting Line''

Publications

Poetry collections

* * * Still Life with Mother and Knife: Poems (February 12, 2019; LSU Press)

Chapbook

Criticism

"Christian Wiman's "Hard Night" "
''Courtland Review'', WINTER 2006

Online works

''Poetry'' February 2009

References

External links

Author's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rathburn, Chelsea Writers from Jacksonville, Florida Living people 1975 births University of Arkansas alumni American women poets Chapbook writers Poets Laureate of Georgia (U.S. state) 21st-century American women