rachel j. atakpa
(1999 — )
is and changes.
︎information
︎publications
︎FITS (2023)
︎art-works
︎events
︎︎︎︎︎︎︎
︎Newsletter
︎Email
︎Instagram
rae reads, w/rites, and sows.
rae’s practice is of the web:
iridescent, ecosomatic, spacecraft.
rae was raised in a rural railroad town,
works contiguous rivers, and loves land.
atakpa’s debut chapbook, FITS: a biomythography (2023),
won the Poetry Society of America’s
Anna Rabinowitz Award (2024).
atakpa publishes Sowing circle,
a newsletter
of art, poems, and essays
on climate, craft, and culture.
selected cirriculum vitae
- Kansas Arts Commission Tallgrass Artist resident (2025)
- Community Resource coordinator (2021-2025)
- Social Ecologies Chop Wood Carry Water resident (2024)
- Kansas City Zine Con maker (2023-2024)
- Charlotte Street Foundation studio resident (2022-2024)
- Paper Plains Zine Fest panelist (2023)
- Lawrence Arts Center Zinn Writing resident (2023)
- Charlotte Street Art Writing fellow (2023)
- Heartland Arts KC fellow (2023)
- English Language Arts instructor (2016-2020)
- Ronald E. McNair scholar (2017-2019)
- Langston Hughes Award for Creative Writing (2018)
- Humanity in Action John Lewis fellow (2018)
- University of Michigan Emerging Research scholar (2018)
- Spencer Museum of Art Brosseau Creativity Award (2018)
- College Language Association presenter (2017)
- Hall Center for the Humanities scholar (2016-2017)
“black and white and red all over” film photograph, 2019.