POETIC UPFRONTERY: megan a. volpert

Megan A. Volpert is a performance poet from Chicago who has settled in Atlanta with her wife, Mindy. Volpert holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Louisiana State University, and currently teaches High School English.

the desense of nonfense is her second full-length book of poems, released by BlazeVOX Books this year. She published two collections in 2007: face blindness also with BlazeVOX and domestic transmission, a chapbook with MetroMania Press. Her other publications credits include columbia poetry review, MiPOesias Magazine and a serial feature in Exquisite Corpse.

This self-proclaimed love child of Joan Jett and Tina Fey has shared microphones with a wide range of poets: from Christian Bök, Andrei Codrescu, and Alice Notley, to Laura Mullen, Collin Kelley and Daphne Gottlieb. Volpert has been in competition at the National Poetry Slam, is a board member of Poetry Atlanta Inc. and is Co-Director of the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival. She has been nominated twice for Georgia Author of the Year in Poetry, as well as for a Pushcart Prize.

Rooted in confessionalism and surrealism, her work has a strong interest in the performative and is also influenced by second-generation New York School poetry.