R h e t o r i c a l
E n g i n e e r
photo iman ādam
Kailah Figueroa is a rhetorical engineer, memory archivist, and part-time prose stylist. Her poetry has appeared in Black Warrior Review, The Cincinnati Review, Poetry Northwest, Torch Literary Arts, Pigeon Pages, wildness, and is forthcoming in Lampblack and Ploughshares. A Best New Poets and Pushcart Prize nominee, Figueroa has received support and fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, Vermont Studio Center, Fine Arts Work Center, Cave Canem, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
Born in New York City and raised in Towson, Maryland, Figueroa received her BA in Creative Writing from Susquehanna University, and subsequently earned an MFA in Poetry from Rutgers University-Newark where she taught Creative Writing to undergraduate students.
Her manuscript in submission, Before The Bull Dreams Me (Poetry, full-length) was selected as a finalist for the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics 2025 Book Prize. She is working on a novel.
She loves fresh flowers, karaoke, and Alice Coltrane; her biggest dream is for her and all her friends to live on the same street. You can follow her on Instagram, read her Newsletter, or visit her CV.