"For me, personally, the most important aspect of poetry is simply the spaces it creates for surprise, self-discovery, and significant critical reflection."
Emily Abendroth's (b. 1975) poetry encourages readers to discover difficult truths woven into social, cultural, and physical realities. "I identify with the choices of artists who employ volatile and complex forms in order to deal with volatile and complex subject matter," Abendroth says. In addition to completing a new full-length manuscript, made up of a single, serial poem—]EXCLOSURES[, published in 2014 by Ahsahta Press—she has spent the past half-dozen years writing about imprisonment and regimes of control. She is the co-editor of Instead of Prisons..., an anthology of writings by incarcerated individuals in the Mid-Atlantic region, forthcoming from Thread Makes Blanket press. Abendroth holds an MA in poetry from Temple University and in 2012, she was named a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow. Her works are often published in limited edition, handcrafted chapbooks by micro-presses such as Albion Press (Philadelphia) and Zumbar Press (San Francisco).
