Alysse Gopalakrishnan
Publishing as Alysse Kathleen McCanna
Education
Ph.D. English, Creative Writing Emphasis (Poetry), Oklahoma State University. Exam Areas: Poetics, Literary Studies: Feminist Theory in American Literature by Women. Dissertation: FishWife. Dissertation Defended on March 8, 2022; passed with no revisions. May 2022.
M.F.A. Writing and Literature, Poetry Concentration, Bennington College. Thesis: Reflectogram. Thesis Committee: April Bernard, Major Jackson. June 2015.
B.A. History of Art; Minor: English Language & Literature, Smith College. May 2007.
Teaching & Academic Appointments
Associate Professor, Fall 2022-Present
Faculty of the Year for the Vail Valley Campus 2023
Colorado Mountain College, Eagle, CO
ENG1001: Academic Writing Skills
ENG1021: English Composition I
ENG1022: English Composition II
ENG1080: Literature of the Environment
ENG2021: Creative Writing I
LIT2005: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture in U.S. Literature
SUS3200: Literature for Change
Graduate Teaching Assistant (Instructor of Record), Fall 2016-Spring 2022
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
ENGL1113, 1213: Composition 1 and 2 (In Person & Online)
ENGL1113, 1213: High School Concurrent Composition 1 and 2 (Online)
ENGL1413: Critical Analysis & Writing II: Multimodal Composition
ENGL2513: Intro to Creative Writing
Writing Center Consultant, Spring 2017, Fall 2018, Spring 2022
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
Synchronous & asynchronous tutor, in person and online, for undergraduate students and the Graduate Writing Center
Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) and Social Foundations (SF) Writing Fellow
Dissertation Writing Workshop Facilitator
Adjunct Instructor, Fall 2021
Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ
WRIT1000: Fundamentals of Writing
Adjunct Instructor, Fall 2019
Westfield State University, Westfield, MA
ENGL101: Composition 1
Assistant Director of Creative Writing, 2018-2019
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
Lecturer, Spring 2016
Colorado State University-Pueblo, Pueblo, CO
ENG101: Composition I
ENG102: Composition II
Community Teaching Experience
Poetry Workshop Leader, La Vista Correctional Facility, Spring 2016
Poetry Workshop Leader, Pueblo West Public Library, Spring 2016
Publications
Full-Length Poetry Collection
FishWife, Black Lawrence Press, March 2024.
Chapbook
Pentimento, winner of the 2017 Gold Line Press Chapbook Competition, judged by Safiya Sinclair, March 2019.
Poetry
“The Mermaid.” Featured on Verse Daily, July 2024.
“The Scientist.” Bombay Gin, Issue 46, December 2023.
“The Keeper.” SWWIM Every Day, October 2023.
“Crown for Forgetting.” Grist, Issue 15, Spring 2023.
“Oven Spring.” North American Review, 307.1, Spring 2022.
“The [ ] Wife,” “He Who Finds a Wife Finds a Good Thing.” The Pinch, 41.2, Fall 2021.
“The Soldier,” “The Sailor,” “The Trucker.” The Rumpus, August 2021.
“An Ex-Husband for the End of the World.” Harpur Palate, Double Issue 19.2/20.1.
“Woman Turned Inside Out.” POETS.org, September 2020.
“Waiting for Men to Come Home from Wars.” So to Speak: feminist journal of language and art, 2020 Contest Issue.
“Pantoum for Burning.” Pembroke Magazine, no. 52, 2020. Featured on Verse Daily August 19, 2020.
“Petroglyphs.” Inverted Syntax, February 2020.
“Land Run Haibun,” “The Salesman.” Nimrod International Journal, Fall/Winter 2019.
“Cutting Hair.” Poet Lore, Spring 2019.
“Near Misses.” CutBank, Spring 2019. Featured on Verse Daily October 9, 2019.
“A Practice of Gestures.” TriQuarterly, Spring 2019.
“The Magician.” Rabbit Issue 26: Belonging.
“The Men I’ve Never Loved, Exactly.” Dogwood, Spring 2018.
“Heat,” “Success That is Partly the Result of Chance.” The Boiler, March 2018. Nominated for Best of the Net 2018.
“Changing the Baby.” Free State Review, February 2018.
“Husband Ghazal,” “Reckoning.” Lunch Ticket: Amuse Bouche, January 2018.
“Taking Up the Dock.” Midwestern Gothic, Winter 2018. Contributor Spotlight, March 2018.
“Wife.” Barrow Street, Winter 2017/2018.
“Kissing Angelina.” Tinderbox, December 2017.
“Time is Blood.” POETS.org, August 2017.
“It’s Not Like the Movies.” The Tishman Review, Spring 2017.
“Joey Teaches Me How to Chop Wood.” Bridge Eight, Spring 2016.
“Family Dollar,” “My Mother Saves a Man O’ War,” “Pears.” Coda Quarterly, Spring 2016.
“Risk.” Boulevard, Spring 2016.
“Filling Out Forms.” Driftwood, July 2015.
“Learning the Tarot.” Madcap Review, July 2015.
“Sylvia Plath in the Kitchen.” Coal Hill Review, June 2015.
Book Reviews
Review of Katy Bohinc’s Scorpio, “The Gorgeous and the Grotesque,” American Book Review, Volume 40, Number 3, March/April 2019.
Review of Rachel McKibben’s blud, “Accepting in Blud Inheritance,” American Book Review, Volume 39, Number 6, September/October 2018.
Review of Diane Gilliam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom, The Operating System, April 2014.
Fellowships, Scholarships, Residencies, Workshops
Artist Residency Grant, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, Summer 2025.
Writing Residency, MASS MoCA, January 2023 (accepted; did not attend due to covid).
Kenyon Review Residential Writers Workshop, July 2022 (accepted; did not attend due to funding).
Juniper Summer Writing Institute, June 2022 (accepted; did not attend due to funding).
Tucson Festival of Books Writing Workshop, March 2022.
Tuition Scholarship to attend New York State Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore College, July 2021.
Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, February 2020.
Juniper Summer Writing Institute, June 2020 (accepted; did not attend due to funding).
Marye Lynn Cummings Scholarship, OSU, 2020.
Finalist, Thomas Lux Scholarship, Palm Beach Poetry Festival, 2020.
Marye Lynn Cummings Scholarship, OSU, judged by Donika Kelly, 2019.
Writers Coop Resident, Sundress Academy for the Arts, November 2018.
Poet Ai Scholarship, OSU, Fall 2016.
Writing Program Scholarship, Bennington College, June 2013-June 2015.
Honor and Awards
Winner
Gold Medalist, Poetry-Standard Category, Independent Publisher Book Awards, 2025.
Poetry Contest, So to Speak: feminist journal of language and art, judged by t’ai freedom ford, 2020.
University & College Poetry Prize, judged by Tyler Mills, Academy of American Poets, 2020.
Chapbook Competition, Gold Line Press, 2017.
University & College Poetry Prize, judged by Molly Brodak, Academy of American Poets, 2017.
Liam Rector Poetry Prize, Bennington College, 2015.
Winter Poetry Contest, Sixfold Literary Journal, 2013.
Mark Fischer Poetry Prize, 2010.
Elizabeth Babcock Poetry Prize, Smith College, 2007.
Runner Up
Key West Literary Seminars Emerging Writer Awards, Scotti Merrill Award for Poetry, 2022.
Grist ProForma Contest, April 2021.
Finalist
Medal Provocateur, Eric Hoffer Book Awards, 2025.
2024 Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award, Wisconsin Writers Awards, Arts + Literature Laboratory, April 2025.
Prize in Poetry, Ghost Peach Press, October 2022. Antivenom Poetry Award, Elixir Press, March 2022.
Barrow Street Book Prize, Barrow Street Press, January 2022.
Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards, 2022.
Indiana Review 1/2K Prize, September 2020.
Dogwood Literary Prize, Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, 2018.
Moon City Poetry Award, Moon City Press, 2017.
Chapbook Contest, The Center for Book Arts, 2017.
Best of the Net, Sundress Publications, 2017.
Edna St. Vincent Millay Poetry Prize, The Tishman Review, 2017.
First Book Contest, Autumn House Press, 2016.
Chapbook Contest, Iron Horse Literary Review, 2016.
Chapbook Contest, Coal Hill Review, 2015.
Semi-Finalist
Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize, October 2022.
Perugia Press Prize, March 2022.
2021 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, Anhinga Press.
Perugia Press Prize, March 2021.
Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards, 2020.
Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry, Persea Books, 2018.
Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry, University of Wisconsin Press, 2016.
Emerging Poets Contest, Boulevard, 2016.
Conference Presentations
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association: 76th Annual Convention, October 14, 2023, as part of the panel Writing Trauma Survival, Practicing Writing Rituals to Preempt and Process Trauma: CAConrad’s Poetics, Denver.
Arts and Humanities Graduate Colloquium: On the Brink: Borders, Transitions, and the Body, February 25, 2022, as part of the craft panel Freedom as Literary Ecotone: Ecowriting Along Borders of Poetry / Prose and Non / Human Communities, virtual.
Creative Writing Studies Conference: Creative Writing as Care & Other Lessons of the Pandemic, October 2021, as part of the workshop Ritual and Wonder: Methods of Reopening and Unsilencing the Workshop, virtual. Introduction on YouTube.
SoCo Conference, April 2016, as part of the panel, The Writer Goes Pop: Memory, Influence, and Processing Pop Culture, CSU-Pueblo.
Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery (SISSI) Conference, March 2015, Image of the Rebel: as part of the panel, The Poetics of the Rebel, CSU-Pueblo.
SISSI Conference, March 2014, Image of the Hero: as part of the panel, The Poetics of the Hero, CSU-Pueblo.
Editorial Experience
Associate Editor, Pilgrimage Magazine, 2015-Present
Editorial Assistant, The Cimarron Review, 2017-2021
Copy Editor, Pilgrimage Magazine, 2013-2015
Editor, The Bennington Review, 2015
Poetry Reader, The Literary Review, 2014-2015
Service & Professional Activities
Faculty Advisor for Genders & Sexualities Alliance (GSA) Student Club, Spring 2025-Present
Faculty Advisor for Creative Writing Student Club, Spring 2025-Present
Poetry Judge, Colorado College English Department Student Writing Contest, Spring 2025
Poetry Fellow, Bennington Writing Seminars, June 2024
Awarded $700 Grant from Women in Philanthropy for GSA Club, Spring 2023
Recreational Coordinator, Bennington Writing Seminars, Jan 2020-January 2022
Editorial Committee Member, Gasher Journal First-Book Scholarship, Fall 2021
Reader, Cow Creek Chapbook Contest, Pittsburg State University, 2020-2021
Cowboy Concurrent Pilot Program, OSU, Fall 2020-Fall 2021
Eli Review Pilot Program, OSU, 2018-2019
Secretary, OSU Creative Writers Association, 2017-2018
Nature Walk Coordinator, Oklahoma State University, 2017
Regional Coordinator and State Judge, Southeastern Colorado History Day, 2014-2016
Writing Contest Judge, Otero Junior College, 2014-2015
Readings, Classroom Visits, & Interviews
Classroom Visit, Juan J. Morales’ Creative Writing Class, Colorado College, Virtual, April 1, 2025.
Black Lawrence Press AWP 2025 Off-Site Reading at The Makery in Los Angeles, CA, March 27, 2025.
Workshop Visit, Emily Mohn-Slate's Madwomen in the Attic Writing Workshop, Carlow University, Virtual, February 11, 2025.
Alum Reading Series, Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College, Virtual, January 9, 2025.
Classroom Visit, Clemonce Heard’s Creative Writing Class, St. Olaf College, Virtual, November 20, 2024.
Texas Book Launch at Basket Books & Art in Houston, TX, November 7, 2024.
Reader for CSU-Pueblo SoCo Reading Series, Pueblo, CO, October 10, 2024.
Featured reader, the DMQ Virtual Salon, October 2024.
Interview with Kathryn Winograd for The Colorado Poet, Issue #41, September 2024.
Interview with Emily Mohn-Slate for Be Where You Are, June 25, 2024.
Interview with Rena J. Mosteirin of Left Bank Books, April 15, 2024.
Celebrate National Poetry Month with Colorado Authors, reading at The Bookworm, Edwards, CO, April 11, 2024.
Reader at Trish Hopkinson Book Launch at Lithic Bookstore & Gallery, Fruita, CO, March 24, 2024.
Interview with Lauren K. Carlson of Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Volume 9, Issue 1, March 2024.
Classroom Visit, Dr. Jacqueline Alnes’ Introduction to Creative Writing Class, West Chester University, Virtual, February 11, 2024.
Poetry Reading with Lindsey Royce to celebrate The Book of John, Virtual, April 26, 2023.
Classroom Visit, Professor Juan Morales’ Magazine Editing and Production Class, CSU-Pueblo, Virtual, January 27, 2022
Creative Writers Association Publishing Panel, Virtual, April 16, 2021
Bombay Gin Contributor Reading, Virtual, February 27, 2021
So To Speak Contributor Reading, Virtual, November 6, 2020
Classroom Visit, Professor Juan Morales’ Poetry Workshop, CSU-Pueblo, Virtual, December 4, 2020
Creative Writers Association Readings, Stillwater, OK, April 30, 2019; March 27, 2017
Pentimento (Chapbook) Launch, Stillwater, OK, April 15, 2019
AWP Off-Site Reading for Gold Line Press, Portland, OR, March 29, 2019
Classroom Visit, Professor Randi Eldevik’s Reading Poetry Class, October 24, 2018
Interview with KT Herr for Electric Poetry on WYCE, Grand Rapids, MI, May 16, 2017
Poems-to-Go, Stillwater, OK, October 7, 2016
Siren World Book Launch, SoCo Reading Series, Pueblo, CO, November 12, 2015
Getting There From Here, Poetry Reading with Lauren Camp, Juan Morales, and Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, Teatro Paraguas, Santa Fe, NM, October 18, 2015
Poetry Reading, SoCo Reading Series, Pueblo, CO, February 7, 2015
Poems on the Corridor, Kadoya Gallery, Pueblo, CO, February 6, 2015
Pilgrimage Contributor Reading, Pueblo, CO, May 16, 2013
At First Sight Poetry Reading, Hoag Gallery, Pueblo CO, April 6, 2013
P.S. Poetry Invasion Reading, Sangre De Cristo Arts Center, August 17, 2012
Mark Fisher Poetry Prize Reading, Telluride, CO, April 27, 2010
Administrative Experience
Online Programs Coordinator & Application Reader, March 2021-June 2022
Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ
Admissions Counselor, September 2019-March 2020
Smith College, Northampton, MA
Administrative Assistant, History and Psychology Departments, 2012-2016
Colorado State University—Pueblo, CO