KELLI RUSSELL AGODON

Quarter body headshot of Kelli Russell Agodon.

Kelli Russell Agodon is a bi/queer poet and editor from the Pacific Northwest. Her latest book, Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press), was a Finalist in the Washington State Book Awards and shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize in Poetry. She cofounded Two Sylvias Press and teaches at Pacific Lutheran University's low-res MFA program. She also co-hosts the poetry series "Poems You Need" with Melissa Studdard.

And when I sonnet my body 

onto your page and you try to leave 

me, I emdash you—see 

the beauty in that fine thin line

—a bridge grows between us.

When I say things like “I emdash you,” it’s a way to breathe life into the tools of our craft, to animate the punctuation and structure that we usually see as background elements. Who wouldn’t want to be emdashed, after all?

June 16, 2024

June 9, 2024

June 23, 2024