Hailing from the American South, Esther Lee (she/her) is the author of the chapbook, Blank Missives (Trafficker Press) and two poetry collections, Spit (Elixir Press), and Sacrificial Metal (Conduit Books & Ephemera), which garnered three Pushcart Prize nominations.

She recently collaborated on a children’s book titled, Jimmy and Jada Notice, about multiracial identity with the Chicago-based artist Kayce Bayer.

Currently, she is developing a memoir about intergenerational trauma and the surprising intersections of Korean, American, and Portuguese cultures. She will participate in Grub Street’s Memoir Incubator program along with seven writers from 2026-2027.

Her writing and collaborations with visual artists have appeared in multiple literary magazines and anthologies, including Ploughshares, Swamp Pink (formerly Crazyhorse), The Normal School, Verse Daily, Salt Hill, Swink, and elsewhere. She has received awards and residencies from the Fine Arts Work Center, Disquiet, Djerassi, Hambidge, University of Arizona’s Poetry Center, among others.

She earned her M.F.A. from Indiana University and Ph.D. from the University of Utah. She has over ten years of experience teaching creative writing and literature for non-profits and in higher education, including for Emory University, Agnes Scott College, and Johns Hopkins University, to name a few.

As of 2022, she lives in the Azores with her husband and photographer, Michael Marcinek and their two cats, Bowie and Koji.

See her C.V. below.