Elaine Bleakney is a poet and writer living in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Her book of poems, Take the Exit Then Exit, is forthcoming from Understory Books in Spring 2026. Her books include For Another Writing Back, an avant-memoir in lyric prose (Sidebrow Books, 2014), the chapbook 20 Paintings by Laura Owens, an ekphrastic conversation (Poor Claudia, 2013), and the tear-apart anthology Poem in Your Pocket (Abrams, 2009), which she edited.
drawing by Jason Polan
Register here for Deep Blue Time, a writing workshop at Rare Bird Farm near Asheville, NC this July.
Poems
- Four poems, Action, Spectacle
- "Arborescent," The Yale Review
- "Divorce Poplar," Harp & Altar
Writings
- "Something Is Wrong With This Picture," The Believer
- "A Season to Set the House on Fire," Literary Hub
- On Alena Smith's Dickinson, Romper
- "Alive Together," Kenyon Review
Elaine Bleakney's recent poems have appeared in Harp & Altar, theYale Review, Action, Spectacle, and the Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review. Her poems have also been published in American Poetry Review, jubilat, Gulf Coast, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. Her lyrical prose essays have appeared in the Believer, Literary Hub, and the Kenyon Review. She writes Stranger and Stranger on Substack.
Elaine has taught writing workshops at the University of California at Irvine, Penland School of Craft, UNC Asheville, Flagler College, and elsewhere. She has been a guest writer at Warren Wilson College and Kenyon College in Ohio, her alma mater.