Mid/South Contributors: Kristen Grace

Learn more about one of the poets in our anthology

I had the pleasure of meeting Kristen at our recent reading over in Oklahoma City at the Literati Press Bookshop. Our Mid/South Anthology features two of her poems, and we look forward to seeing what’s next for her. Read on to learn more about one of our Oklahoma poets.

Name: Kristen Grace

Current Location: Norman, Oklahoma

Website: kristengracewrites.weebly.com

Bio: Kristen Grace grew up a preacher’s kid who credits Song of Songs with inspiring her to become a queer rebel poet in unloving spaces. Grace is a journalist for 405 Magazine, a freelance copyeditor for Callisto Media, and a graduate student at Oklahoma City University’s Red Earth MFA program. She has authored a children’s book and short story collection with Literati Press in Oklahoma City. In her downtime, she reads. And reads. And reads.

1. Do you have other publications you’d like us to highlight?

I’ve also recently published poetry in Focus Magazine (focuslgbt.com) and will be published in the next issue of Mistake House (mistakehouse.com) and freezeray.com Issue #22.

2. How does the Mid-South and/or larger Southern region influence your perspective (personally and/or in your writing)?

I love Flannery O’Connor and often think about her quote that she was living in the “Christ-haunted south.” We live in an area that preaches Jesus and guns from billboards, while we often witness and participate in beautiful moments of grace, lived out in the everyday. Sacred and profane meet here moment by moment.

Want to dig deeper into our anthology? Sign up for our upcoming class on “Writing Place,” where we’ll look at work by Kristen and our other contributors to learn more about how place-based writing can make us more attentive readers and writers. Register here!