Paisley Rekdal

Paisley Rekdal is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Utah, where she teaches in the Creative Writing Program and directs the American West Center. She served as Utah’s Poet Laureate from 2017–2023 and is the creator of the digital projects Mapping Literary Utah and Mapping Salt Lake City.

Education

• MFA, University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, United States
• MA, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Research & Creative Focus

Rekdal’s scholarship and creative practice converge on contemporary poetry, creative nonfiction, digital humanities, and public literary culture. Her work interrogates memory, trauma, cultural appropriation, and the intersections of identity and place. Through hybrid memoirs, verse, digital archives, and community mapping projects, she explores how narrative can both document and transform lived experience.

Publication Trends

Across her fifteen most recent works, Rekdal has produced award-winning poetry collections (West: A Translation, Nightingale, Animal Eye), book-length essays (The Broken Country, Appropriate: A Provocation), and a pedagogy volume (Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens). These publications demonstrate sustained engagement with war memory, racial and gender identity, digital poetics, and the craft of writing.

Honors & Awards

• Guggenheim Fellowship (2014)
• Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellowship
• Fulbright Fellowship
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
• Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award (2024)
• National Book Awards Longlist (2023)
• Washington State Book Award (2020)
• Poet Laureate Fellowship, Academy of American Poets (2019)
• Utah Poet Laureate (2017–2023)
• Mayor’s Artist Award (2021)
• Governor’s Mansion Artist Award (2021)
• Multiple Pushcart Prizes (2009, 2013)
• AWP Creative Nonfiction Prize
• Civitella Ranieri Residency/Fellowship
• Lannan Literary Selection (2016)
• 15 Bytes Poetry Award / Utah Book Award for Poetry (2017)
• UNT Rilke Prize (2013)

Teaching, Advising & Grants

Rekdal regularly teaches graduate thesis research and poetry workshops at the University of Utah. Recent courses include Thesis Research-PhD (Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023) and Poetry Workshop (Fall 2024). She has secured external grants from the Utah Humanities Council, University Teaching Committee, URC Council, Utah Arts Council, and Jarvis & Constance Doctorow Family Fund to support guest writers series and digital mapping initiatives.

Labs, Projects & Outreach

Rekdal directs the American West Center at the University of Utah. She is the creator and managing editor of Mapping Literary Utah and Mapping Salt Lake City, community-driven digital archives that document Utah’s literary and cultural geographies. She also serves as poetry editor for High Country News and co-chairs PEN America’s Utah Chapter.