Erika Meitner’s poetry plays with the idea of overlooked but vital spaces, from malls and suburban developments to women’s bodies. Meitner graduated from Dartmouth in 1996 and earned an MFA in 2001 from the University of Virginia, where she also received an MA in religious studies. This focus on religion often finds its way into her poems, such as “And After the Ark,” where the story of Noah becomes a lens for the devastating floods of climate change. As of 2024, Meitner is a professor of English and the head of the Creative Writing MFA at University of Wisconsin-Madison; she previously taught Hebrew school and public school. In the tradition of modern poets, her first several collections were published through contests for literary awards. Her first collection, Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore, won the Robert Dana Anhinga Prize in 2002, while her second book, Ideal Cities, won the 2009 National Poetry Series competition. Her third book, Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls, was published in 2011, followed by Copia in 2014, Holy Moly Carry Me in 2018, and Useful Junk in 2022. Meitner’s poetry has been widely anthologized and has appeared in many publications, as have her multimedia documentary photo/text projects, one of which was featured in Virginia Quarterly Review’s Summer 2021 cover story. In 2015, Meitner was a Fulbright scholar at Queens University Belfast, and as of 2024, she is a Mandel Institute Cultural Leadership Program Fellow.