Freesia McKee writes poetry, memoir, flash fiction, book reviews, and literary criticism that make connections between genre, genre, history, and place. 

Freesia (she/her) is the author of three chapbooks: City of Honesty was published by Water’s Edge Press as part of the Calliope Chapbook Series. Hummingbird Vows came out with Bottlecap Press in 2023, and Headmistress Press published Freesia’s first chapbook How Distant the City.

Freesia teaches as an Assistant Professor of English, specializing in poetry, at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where she serves as an Executive Editor for Cornerstone Press. In the fall semester of 2022, Freesia served as the Poet in Residence at Ripon College. She is a white settler who lives on the homelands of the Ho-Chunk and Menominee nations, and she grew up in Milwaukee.

Freesia’s words have appeared in The Journal, Puerto del Sol, Plume, Fugue, Cleaver Magazine, About Place Journal, The Ploughshares Blog, So to Speak, Gertrude, Crab Creek Review, Bone Bouquet, CALYX, Nimrod, Painted Bride Quarterly, New Verse News, Lavender Review, Pleiades Book Review, and many other venues. Freesia won the 2018 Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry from Cutbank. In 2020, Freesia won a Christopher F. Kelly Award for Poetry through the Academy of American Poets. Freesia earned an MFA in poetry from Florida International University and a BA in Gender & Women’s Studies from Warren Wilson College.

Freesia loves teaching and being in community. She hosts an in-person open mic in Stevens Point, Wisconsin on the second Tuesday of every month. Freesia also presents community workshops, learning opportunities, and readings at various venues nationally throughout the year. See Freesia’s list of upcoming events and classes to learn what’s coming up.

Freesia writes an occasional newsletter on poetry, micro-memoir, and the writing life. Join her mailing list here.