ABOUT

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ABOUT ♡

Rose Zinnia (she/they) is a poet, novelist, essayist, teaching artist, editor, and designer. Born in Akron, Ohio, she is the author of Togethering (Ledge Mule Press, 2024), a chapbook of poetry & lyric essay. A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow, Zinnia’s honors also include fellowships and residencies from Vermont Studio Center, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the Kinsey Institute. Her writing appears or is forthcoming in The Offing, Poetry, CV2, Black Warrior Review, Poem-A-Day, The Journal, New Ohio Review, Gulf Coast, Split This Rock, and West Branch, among others.

Zinnia’s work has won awards from Ninth Letter and The Academy of American Poets and has been a finalist/semifinalist for book prizes at Nightboat Books, Persea Books, and Nine Syllables Press. She is an alumnus of Kenyon Review & Tin House workshops and holds an MFA from Indiana University, where she taught creative writing & literary editing/publishing. She has served in editorial roles for Indiana Review, AWP, Monster House Press, and poiesis and co-organized two award-winning reading series. She works at the LGBTQ+ journal and press Foglifter and lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

♡ **CURRENTLY BOOKING 2025 READINGS & EVENTS IN SUPPORT OF MY NEW BOOK TOGETHERING.** GET IN TOUCH TO BOOK ME AT YOUR BOOKSTORE, UNIVERSITY, OR READING SERIES ♡

Selected Awards & Honors

2025 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
2022 Ninth Letter Literary Award in Poetry
2022 Vera Meyer Strube Prize, The Academy of American Poets
2021 Kraft-Kinsey Award & Residency, Kinsey Institute
2021 Lois Davidson Ellis Graduate Fellowship, Indiana University
2021 Ernest Hemingway Fellowship in Creative Writing, Indiana University
2020 Sam Yellen Scholarship Fund, Indiana University
2020 Jane Foulkes Malone Scholarship/Fellowship, Indiana University
2019 William E. Wilson Fellowship Fund, Indiana University

Selected Finalists & Nominations

2025 Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Fellowship (Runner-Up)
2025 Just Buffalo Literary Center Poetry Fellowship (Finalist)
2024 Nine Syllables Press Chapbook Contest (Finalist)
2024 NORward in Poetry, New Ohio Review (Finalist)
2024 Pigeon Pages Poetry Contest (Finalist)
2024 Best New Poets Nominee, The Journal
2024 Pushcart Prize Nominee, Sycamore Review
2024 Anisfield Wolf Fellowship in Writing & Publishing (Finalist)
2023 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize, Persea Books (Semifinalist)
2023 Nightboat Books Poetry Prize (Finalist)

“Zinnia crosses and blurs and trans*s syntax and semantics into an ecstasy made of earth. Their work teaches me something about how the body is a transmitter and receiver of signals. How the body becomes more and less than itself.”

— Michael Mlekoday

“Zinnia’s poetry is stunning, featuring associative leaps alongside singular images, shifts in time, narrative, identities, and an overall focus on describing the contradictory feelings and thoughts of any given moment.”

— The Ocean State Review

“Whether unpacking their personal history or turning an eye toward the community that continues to serve as both a steadying and motivating force, Zinnia writes with disarming rawness and vulnerability, as though even their pen is somehow made of soft tissue.”

— Matter News

PRESS KIT

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PRESS KIT ⟡

BIOS

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(108 words)
Rose Zinnia is a poet, novelist, essayist, teaching artist, editor, and designer. Born in Akron, Ohio, she is the author of Togethering (Ledge Mule Press, 2024), a chapbook of poetry & lyric essay. A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow, Zinnia’s honors also include fellowships and residencies from Vermont Studio Center, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the Kinsey Institute. Her writing appears or is forthcoming in The Offing, Poetry, CV2, Black Warrior Review, Poem-A-Day, The Journal, Gulf Coast, and West Branch, among others. She holds an MFA from Indiana University, works at the LGBTQ+ journal and press Foglifter, and lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

(36 words)
Rose Zinnia is the author of Togethering, a chapbook of poetry & lyric essay. A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow, she holds an MFA from Indiana University and lives in Cleveland, Ohio.