Katie Dozier is one of poetry's up-and-coming innovators. You might know her name from any number of projects she's launched in recent years from her top-rated podcast The Poetry Space_; her popular poetry prompts for the literary journal Rattle (where she's creative editor); or her work as haiku editor at ONE ART: A Journal of Poetry. Considering all the good she puts in the world; I was surprised to learn last year that she'd left a highly regarded MFA program. In her new poetry collection, Residency Review: A Memoir in Verse (Fungible Editions, 2026), Dozier provides a window into what went wrong.
“My new book is the most important thing I’ve ever written,” Dozier shared. “Residency Review: A Memoir in Verse braids quotes, emails, and a Title IX document alongside more traditional poetry, including haibun and contemporary haiku. It confronts institutional silence, sexual assault, disability, motherhood, and the failure of a community to listen. I hope it inspires others to speak (or write!) their story, and share it with the world.”
Residency Review recounts sexual assaults Dozier experienced as an MFA student. Through a series of moving, finely tuned poems she captures the stages of coming to terms with what's happened. I would encourage anyone interested in the book to listen to The Poetry Space_: Episode 141: Residency Review for additional context, and to hear her read poems from the collection.
You can find Residency Review: A Memoir in Verse on The Poetry Shop, along with Dozier's other collections: All That Glitter (winner of The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize) and her haibun collections co-written with her husband Timothy Green: Did You See the Moon Honey: A Crown of Haibun (Fungible Editions, 2025) and Hot Pink Moon: A Crown of Haibun (Fungible Editions, 2024).
We're delighted that Katie Dozier joined us here on The Poetry Shop 5 to share some of her poetic inspirations and her current reading list.
We always start out by asking: who was your "gateway poet," the poet whose first book, or poem, made you want to write?
Shel Silverstein was my early elementary school gateway drug that soon led to the first grown-up poet that I ever loved: Robert Frost. In fourth grade, my teacher Mrs. Holland, assigned us to memorize a poem from a selection. The longest poem in the bunch was "The Road Not Taken," which none of the other kids picked. I picked it, at first just in the attempt to impress my teacher. In the end, I also found a new world, and started writing poems that year too.
Roots
I marched out to the forest, followed
by a line of Boxcar Children books,
having packed a pail full of hours.
I ate an orange and then pulled
wild onions from the earth—
a mix of Georgia clay, sand and dirt.
How, even raw, the skinny ones
smelled like soup. All the while reading,
racing the empty sky. Foraging
for the bottom of the pile,
where I found Frost alive.
every word pages every word
—KHD (from Hot Pink Moon)
Which poetry book are you currently reading?
Maggie Smith's A Suit or a Suitcase: Poems (Washington Square Press), as well as the book from the upcoming guest of the Rattlecast every week! I'm enjoying the overall metaphor of this book, as well as the concision of the lines. Kudos for the surrealist cover image as well!
Is there a book on the craft of writing that you recommend to poets?
Here's one you probably don't hear too often: Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book On Novel Writing You'll Ever Need by Jessica Brody. As poets, I think we need to spend more time looking to other art forms to improve our storytelling. If you can't answer why someone should care about what you've written then it is probably a personal poem, not yet one ready for public consumption. It’s a test so many poems fail, yet almost every single widely watched movie passes this test.
Who is a new voice in poetry that we need to check out–someone with a debut book or recent release?
Hemat Malak and Chad Frame. I met Hemat through her involvement in the Rattle Promptlines Community. She has a wonderfully soft, lyric voice, and her poems weave unusual narratives that make every single one a journey. The immense thought she places in her form makes her poems stand out as well. Her book, Shelf Life, will be out later this year.
Chad wrote one of my all-time favorite poems that we’ve published since I began working at Rattle, “Claw Machine.” He was on the Rattlecast to talk about his Little Black Book (Finishing Line Press). Chad has such a strong voice, but his poems feel effortless. He is also excellent at having “save the cat” moments.
I don’t think that any of these poets totally count as “new,” but I also need to recommend Kat Lehmann. I bought her book Stumbling Towards Happiness: Haibun and Hybrid Poems three years ago at a haiku conference, and it was part of why I then immersed myself in Japanese forms. On that note, I also love Roberta Beary’s Crazy Bitches (Macq Books).
Finally, what’s a poetry book that others may not know about but deserves a shout out?
For Instance (Wiseblood Books) by Rhina P. Espaillat. While Rhina is certainly a well-known poet, she is one of those poets that I think should reach an even higher degree of fame! I had the pleasure of photographing her for Rattle and we also recorded a beautiful episode of The Poetry Space_ (#134) over her kitchen table. She read with such beautiful ease, even when sharing painful anecdotes. We need more form in poetry, and perhaps the form we need the most is Rhina herself!
About
Katie Dozier is the creator of the top-rated podcast The Poetry Space_, the haiku editor for ONE ART: A Journal of Poetry, and creative editor at Rattle. She lives with her husband in The Woodlands, Texas, with their four children, a new magnolia tree, and too many books. She loves long conversations about short poems even more than macarons. For more information, visit her website and find her on Substack, Facebook, or Instagram.
Books referenced in this article.
Residency Review: A Memoir in Verse (Fungible Editions) by Katie Dozier
All That Glitter (The Poetry Box) by Katie Dozier
Did You See the Moon Honey: A Crown of Haibun (Fungible Editions, 2025) and Hot Pink Moon: A Crown of Haibun (Fungible Editions, 2024) by Katie Dozier and Timothy Green
Poetry books by Shel Silverstein & Robert Frost
A Suit or a Suitcase: Poems (Washington Square Press) by Maggie Smith
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book On Novel Writing You'll Ever Need (Ten Speed Press) by Jessica Brody
Little Black Book (Finishing Line Press) by Chad Frame
Stumbling Towards Happiness: Haibun and Hybrid Poems by Kat Lehmann
Crazy Bitches (Macq Books) by Roberta Beary
For Instance (Wiseblood Books) by Rhina P. Espaillat
