BIO:

Kelly M. Houle is an Arizona-based poet and visual artist born in Arizona in 1969. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Arizona in atmospheric science and an MFA in creative writing from Arizona State University. She has a diploma in traditional botanical art from the Society of Botanical Artists and is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. Kelly studied oil painting at Scottsdale Artists’ School and was mentored by artist Abbey Ryan with support from a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Kelly’s paintings, prints, and handmade books are in public and private collections around the world, including the British Library and the M.C. Escher Foundation. Her poems have been published in Alba, CALYX, Connecticut River Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Kenyon Review, The Prose Poem, Radar Poetry, Sequestrum, and others. She was named a finalist for the Montreal International Poetry Prize, the Fischer Prize, the Arts and Letters “Unclassifiable” contest, and winner of the Vivian Shipley Award from the Connecticut Poetry Society. Kelly teaches secondary mathematics and leads an online nature sketchbook club for middle and high school students and serves as a Nature Journaling Ambassador for the Wild Wonder Foundation.