About

Emily Holland (they/she) is a genderqueer lesbian writer living in Washington, DC. She received her MFA from American University, where she won the Myra Sklarew Award for outstanding thesis in poetry and was the Editor-in-Chief of FOLIO. They have received support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and two Pushcart Prizes. They have poems appearing or forthcoming in publications including Shenandoah, DIALOGIST, HAD, Homology Lit, Impossible Archetype, Screen Door Review, FOLIO, bedfellows, Wussy, and Nat. Brut.

Their debut chapbook Lineage was released August 2019 from dancing girl press. The poems explore themes of queerness, place, familial lineage, and investigate the Southern pastoral. It was a “Best Dressed” pick for Sundress Publication’s The Wardrobe blog.

They work at The Writer’s Center, where they started as an intern with Poet Lore while working full-time at a coffee shop. She is currently the Editor of Poet Lore, a co-host of The Writer’s Center’s Virtual Craft Chat series, and a frequent contributor to The Writer’s Center Magazine. They also offer generative poetry workshops via The Writer’s Center.

While working with Poet Lore and The Writer’s Center, they are also the current chair of OutWrite, DC’s LGBTQIA+ literary festival sponsored by The DC Center for the LGBT Community, and an adjunct professor at The George Washington University.

As an undergraduate at The George Washington University, where she received a BA in Creative Writing and English, she worked as the culture editor for The GW Hatchet, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of a startup literary magazine, and a contributing writer for Brightest Young Things.

In addition to her creative writing, Emily also writes and presents academic work, with focuses on queer/feminist studies, cultural criticism, and contemporary film analysis (often centered on LGBTQ+ cinema, women directors, and/or the horror genre).

She also does other freelance work including website copy editing, manuscript editing, and freelance journalism. Contact her for more information regarding these services.