Elisa Gabbert (born 1979, El Paso, Texas) is an American poet, essayist, and critic whose aphoristic, philosophically curious work blurs the boundaries between lyric poetry, personal essay, and criticism. She is the author of seven books, including Any Person Is the Only Self (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), Normal Distance (Soft Skull, 2022), The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays (FSG, 2020), and The Self Unstable (Black Ocean, 2013). The Self Unstable was named one of The New Yorker's best books of 2013. She writes the On Poetry column for The New York Times. Gabbert earned a BA in linguistics from Rice University and an MFA from Emerson College.