BIOGRAPHY
photo: iman ādam
Kailah Figueroa is a rhetorical engineer, memory archivist, and part-time prose stylist. Her
writing is featured in wildness, Poetry Northwest, Black
Warrior Review, Torch Literary Arts, The Cincinnati Review, Pigeon Pages, Prose Online, among others, with work forthcoming in Ploughshares.
Figueroa was a 2021 recipient of the Fulbright UK Summer Institute at the University of Bristol: Arts, Activism, and Social Justice. And in 2023, she was a Pushcart Prize nominee for her poem “After My Bipolar Diagnosis I Make Several Phone Calls and Everyone Says That Makes Sense” published in Torch Literary Arts. In 2024, Figueroa was awarded a 4-week writing residency at Vermont Studio Center where she received the Civil Society Institute Fellowship. In 2025, she was awarded a Cave Canem Fellowship. She recieved her B.A in Creative Writing from Susquehanna University, and is a Poetry MFA candidate at Rutgers-Newark '25 where she also teaches. She is currently working on her debut poetry collection and novel.
Figueroa was a 2021 recipient of the Fulbright UK Summer Institute at the University of Bristol: Arts, Activism, and Social Justice. And in 2023, she was a Pushcart Prize nominee for her poem “After My Bipolar Diagnosis I Make Several Phone Calls and Everyone Says That Makes Sense” published in Torch Literary Arts. In 2024, Figueroa was awarded a 4-week writing residency at Vermont Studio Center where she received the Civil Society Institute Fellowship. In 2025, she was awarded a Cave Canem Fellowship. She recieved her B.A in Creative Writing from Susquehanna University, and is a Poetry MFA candidate at Rutgers-Newark '25 where she also teaches. She is currently working on her debut poetry collection and novel.
She likes karaoke, fresh flowers, Alice Coltrane, Ethel Cain, playing pool, reading by candle light, and vintage designer shoes. Her biggest wish and dream is for all her friends to live on the same street as her.
Instagram: @kailahfigueroa
Substack newsletter: The Saddest Girl in ______
Instagram: @kailahfigueroa
Substack newsletter: The Saddest Girl in ______
Vermont Studio Center Public Reading Aug. 2024;
BIO (short): Kailah Figueroa
is a rhetorical
engineer, memory archivist, and part-time prose stylist. Her work has appeared
in Poetry Northwest, The Cincinnati Review, Black Warrior Review,
Pigeon Pages, and Torch Literary Arts, with poems forthcoming in Wildness and Ploughshares.
A Pushcart Prize nominee, Figueroa has been awarded fellowships from the
Fulbright Commission, Vermont Studio Center, and Cave Canem. She is finishing her final
semester of her MFA in Poetry at Rutgers University-Newark, where she also
teaches. She loves fresh flowers, karaoke, and Alice Coltrane. Her biggest
dream is for her and all her friends to live on the same street.