ABOUT

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ABOUT ♡

Rose Zinnia is a writer, editor, teaching artist, and designer. Born in Akron, Ohio, she is the author of Togethering (Ledge Mule Press, 2024), a hybrid chapbook of poetry & lyric essay. A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, Zinnia’s honors also include fellowships from Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the Kinsey Institute. Her writing appears or is forthcoming in Michigan Quarterly Review, 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. 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 or jural roles for Vermont Studio Center, The Cincinnati Review, Indiana Review, and AWP. She works in production at the LGBTQ+ journal and press Foglifter and is a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati.

♡ I AM AVAILABLE FOR READINGS, TALKS, WORKSHOPS, AND CAN JUDGE, JURY, & GUEST EDIT. GET IN TOUCH! ♡

Selected Awards & Honors

2026 Academy of American Poets Prize
2025 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship
2022 Ninth Letter Literary Award in Poetry
2022 Vera Meyer Strube Prize, The Academy of American Poets
2021 Kraft-Kinsey Award, Kinsey Institute

Selected Finalists & Nominations

2025 Pushcart Prize Nominee, The Offing
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)

Residencies & Workshops

2026 Hedgebrook (Poetry)
2025 Tin House Summer Workshop (Poetry)
2025 Vermont Studio Center (Poetry)
2024 Banff Centre for the Arts & Creativity (Fiction)
2023 Kenyon Review Writers Workshop (Poetry)
2021 Kinsey Institute (Poetry)
2021 Tin House Summer Workshop (Fiction)

Juries & Committees

2026 Vermont Studio Center Residency Juror (Poetry)
2026 University of Illinois Chicago Dissertation Committee Member (Fiction)
2018 AWP Donald Hall Prize Screener (Poetry)

“Zinnia crosses and blurs and trans*s syntax and semantics into an ecstasy made of earth. Her 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 her pen is somehow made of soft tissue.”

— Matter News

PRESS KIT

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PRESS KIT ⟡

BIOS

Full bio: please use the full bio at top of page.

Shorter bios: please use these shorter bios below, if necessary.

(95 words)
Rose Zinnia is a writer, editor, and designer. Born in Akron, Ohio, she is the author of Togethering (2024), a collection of poetry & lyric essay. A 2025 NEA Fellow, Zinnia’s honors also include fellowships from Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the Kinsey Institute. Her writing appears or is forthcoming in POETRY, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Offing, Black Warrior Review, and Poem-A-Day, among others. She holds an MFA from Indiana University, works at the LGBTQ+ journal and press Foglifter, and is a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati.

(49 words)
Rose Zinnia is the author of Togethering (2024). A 2025 NEA Fellow, Zinnia’s honors also include fellowships from Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the Kinsey Institute. She holds an MFA from Indiana University and is a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati.