Donika Kelly

Biography

Donika Kelly is the author of Bestiary, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, selected by Nikky Finney, and forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2016. She received an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University. She lives in Northern California with her wife and animals.

See Work

POETRY / Summer 2016

Bower

By Donika Kelly

Consider the bowerbird and his obsession
of blue, and then the island light, the acacia,
the grounded beasts. Here, the iron smell of blood,
the sweet marrow, fields of grass and bone.

POETRY / Summer 2016

Swallow

By Donika Kelly

The first time you swallow—
the light, lurid and cold—

POETRY / Summer 2016

How to be alone

By Donika Kelly

Not that you ever are. The small, rough dogs lie at your feet or warm your belly.