Tanya Grae

Grae was born in Sumter, South Carolina, while her father was stationed at Shaw AFB.[1] Her family is from Nashville, and she is of Irish, Dutch, and Cherokee descent. She grew up traveling the United States as her father relocated for the military every few years and often writes about her early experiences.

Grae received her BA from Rollins College, where she won the Arden Goettling Academy of American Poets Prize, and her MFA from Bennington College in 2013. She teaches at Florida State University, where she is finishing her Ph.D. in Creative Writing and was awarded the 2018 John McKay Shaw Academy of American Poets Prize.[2]

Grae is the author of Undoll (2019), a National Poetry Series finalist as well as finalist for seven other national book prizes.[1][3]

In 2016, Yusef Komunyakaa selected her poem “The Line of a Girl” to receive the 2016 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Poetry Prize.[4]

As a poet, she has been published widely, individual poems appearing in AGNI, Prairie Schooner, New Ohio Review, The Massachusetts Review, WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review, and other journals.[5][6][7][8]

• 2018 John McKay Shaw Academy of American Poets Prize
• 2017 National Poetry Series Finalist
• 2016 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Poetry Prize
• 2010 Arden Goettling Academy of American Poets Prize

• Personal Website
• NPR/WFSU