Kelly Caldwell's writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Denver Quarterly, Entropy, Fence, Figure 1, Mississippi Review, The Missouri Review, Phoebe, Quiddity, Seneca Review, Utterance, MAKE Magazine, Slant, Pacific Standard Magazine, The Rumpus, and VICE, among other journals.  A trans poet, writer, visual artist, and editor, Kelly was the winner of the Norma Lowry Memorial Prize and the Cornelison English Award from Washington University in St. Louis, the winner of an Academy of American Poets University Prize, and the winner of the 2019 Greg Grummer Prize, judged by Jos Charles. She was founding editor and co-editor-in-chief of The Spectacle. 

 

As a PhD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis, Kelly worked on her critical dissertation, a theorization of ecological tropes, things, time, and networks. She published on poetry and theory in peer-reviewed journals such as Religion & Literature. 

 

Kelly passed away in March 2020. She was living in Columbia, MO with her life partner, the writer Cassie Donish.