Alison Pelegrin is an American poet, writer, and English lecturer. She is the author of several poetry collections, including ''Our Lady of Bewilderment'' (LSU 2022), ''Waterlines'' (LSU 2016), ''Hurricane Party'' (Akron 2011), and ''Big Muddy River of Stars'' (2007), which won the Akron Poetry Prize. In 2023, she was appointed the Poet Laureate of Louisiana, serving through 2025.

Biography

Alison Pelegrin was born and raised in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. She earned her

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

in poetry from the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

. Pelegrin has taught English at

Southeastern Louisiana University Southeastern Louisiana University (Southeastern) is a public university in Hammond, Louisiana. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims as Hammond Junior College. Sims succeeded in getting the campus moved to north Hammond in 1928, when it beca ...

(SLU) for more than two decades. In 2023, she was appointed the Poet Laureate of Louisiana, serving through 2025. As of 2024, she is SLU's writer-in-residence. Her work has appeared in notable literary journals such as ''Poetry'', ''Ploughshares'', ''The Southern Review'', ''The Missouri Review'', and ''The Bennington Review''. Several of her poems are available as free printable broadsides at Broadsided Press. Pelegrin is married to Bryan Davidson and has two adult children. She and her husband live in Covington.

Awards and honors

Pelegrin has received multiple notable fellowships and grants, including a fellowship from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, a Creative Writing Fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

(2007), and an ATLAS Grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents.

Publications

* ''Voodoo Lips'' (Poems and Plays, 2002) - Chapbook * ''The Zydeco Tablets'' (Word Press, 2002) * ''Big Muddy River of Stars'' (University of Akron Press, 2007) * ''Hurricane Party'' (University of Akron Press, 2011) * ''Waterlines'' (Louisiana State University Press, 2016) * ''Our Lady of Bewilderment'' (Louisiana State University Press, 2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelegrin, Alison Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers Writers from Louisiana Poets laureate of Louisiana University of Arkansas alumni Southeastern Louisiana University faculty National Endowment for the Arts Fellows