Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke is a Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, where she leads the UCR Writers Week Festival and directs the VA National Cemetery Administration Legacy Program. She has held visiting or faculty positions at Hartwick College, University of Nebraska, Naropa University, and University of Hawai'i, Mānoa, including roles such as Fulbright Scholar in Montenegro and Dan & Maggie Inouye Chair in Democratic Ideals.

• Education: MFA from Vermont College (1995), AFAW from Institute of American Indian Arts, post-grad work at VCFA

Her research and creative work intersects with Indigenous Studies, disability advocacy, and environmental poetics. She is known for mathematically encoding the prosody of her verse play Blood Run to mirror the Indigenous mound city it protects, and for multimedia projects like the Streaming album and Red Dust documentary.

Her recent publications include the award-winning Look at This Blue and the curated anthology series Effigies, which spotlight emerging queer and Pacific Rim poets. Projects often blend community outreach, mental health advocacy, and Indigenous knowledge preservation.

• Major Awards: American Book Award, National Book Award Finalist, Pen Southwest Book Award, Texas Institute of Letters fellowship, NWCA Lifetime Achievement

Hedge Coke’s mentorship spans juvenile facilities, reservations, and refugee communities. She founded the Literary Sandhill Cranefest Retreat and has secured grants for K-12 outreach programs integrating poetry with historical and ecological education.