CM Burroughs (born in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American poet and associate professor of poetry at Columbia College Chicago. She earned degrees from Sweet Briar College and the University of Pittsburgh. Her debut collection, The Vital System (Tupelo Press, 2012), centers on her survival as a premature infant and explores race, gender, and violence through compressed, cinematically charged language. Her second collection, Master Suffering (Tupelo Press, 2021), was longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry and was a finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Lambda Literary Award. She has received fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, the Djerassi Foundation, Cave Canem, and commissions from the Studio Museum of Harlem and the Andy Warhol Museum.