rachel j. atakpa (rae/raje) (1999 — )

reads, w/rites, and sows.

atakpa is a Charlotte Street Foundation studio resident (2022-2024) and the author of one chapbook, FITS: a biomythography (2023). Selected by Farid Matuk, FITS 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.

atakpa’s writing has appeared in publications such as Berkeley Poetry Review, The New Territory Magazine, and Contemporary Verse 2. atakpa is the recipient of the Langston Hughes Award for Creative Writing (2018) and Brosseau Creativity Award (2018). rae is a previous Lawrence Arts Center Zinn Writing resident (2023), Ronald E. McNair Scholar (2017-2019), Humanity in Action John Lewis Fellow (2018), and University of Michigan Emerging Research scholar (2018).

“black and white and red all over” film photograph, 2019.