A first-generation Ukranian American, Olena Kalytiak Davis grew up in Detroit and was educated at Wayne State University, the University of Michigan Law School, and Vermont College. Her poetry collections include And Her Soul Out of Nothing (1997), selected for the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, shattered sonnets, love cards, and other off and back handed importunities (2003), On the Kitchen Table From Which Everything Has Been Hastily Removed (2009) and The Poem She Didn’t Write and Other Poems (2014). Davis’ free-verse, lyrical poems use variations in syntax, spacing, and punctuation to attend with precision and play to constructions of motherhood, inheritance, and romantic love. Her expansive poetry embraces simultaneity, referencing literature, the seen and heard world, and her children’s voices.
Davis’ honors include a Pushcart Prize, the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, a Rasmuson Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her poetry has been included in several Best American Poetry anthologies. She practices law and lives in Alaska.
Portrait courtesy of Official UK Chapbook Chart
