Molly Spencer

Molly Spencer is a poet, critic, editor, and writing instructor. Her debut collection, If the House (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019) won the 2019 Brittingham Prize judged by Carl Phillips. A second collection, Hinge​ (SIU Press, 2020), which was a finalist for the National Poetry Series, won the 2019 Crab Orchard Open Competition judged by Allison Joseph. Her third collection, Invitatory, won the 2022 New Measure Poetry Prize judged by Jon Thompson and is forthcoming from Parlor Press in 2024. Molly’s poetry has appeared in Blackbird, Copper Nickel, FIELD, The Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, and Prairie Schooner. Her critical writing and essays have appeared at Colorado Review, The Georgia Review, Kenyon Review online, Literary Hub, West Branch, The Writer's Chronicle, and The Rumpus, where she is a senior poetry editor. Molly's work has won a Lucile Medwick Award from the Poetry Society of America, a Glenna Luschei Award from Prairie Schooner, a Writers@Work Fellowship Award, and a faculty fellowship from the University of Michigan's Institute for the Humanities. She holds an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop, an MPA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and a BA in economics from the University of Notre Dame and teaches graduate and undergraduate policy writing courses at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. 

Educational background

• MFA in poetry, Rainier Writing Workshop
• MPA, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs
• BA in economics, University of Notre Dame

Professional affiliations

Senior Poetry Editor, The Rumpus

Recent publications

• "Wayfaring: On the Poetic Line as a Generative Space"; Mentor and Muse; https://mentorandmuse.net/molly-spencer/
• "A Privilege, That Conversation: On the Overheard in Ellen Bryant Voigt's Kyrie"; West Branch; https://westbranch.blogs.bucknell.edu/this-long-winding-line-a-poetry-r…