On this episode, Kaitlyn Airy talks about how her experience as an adoptee shapes the themes of her work on abandonment, identity, and history. Plus, she and Jared discuss the benefits they have both reaped after taking breaks from their rigorous writing habits, and Kaitlyn describes how UVA students get to design and teach their own undergraduate creative writing class.

Kaitlyn Airy is a Korean American poet. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she was raised in the San Juan Archipelago off the coast of Washington State. In Spring 2020, her poem “Demilitarized Zone” was selected by Elizabeth Austen as the winner of the Phyllis L Ennes Contest, sponsored by the Skagit River Poetry Foundation. In 2022, Narrative Magazine named her one of their 30 Below 30. Her recent work has been featured or is forthcoming in EcoTheo, Crab Creek Review, Cream City Review, Moss, Post Road, Poetry Northwest, Palette Poetry, and Narrative Magazine. She is an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Virginia, where she serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Meridian and as an Editorial Assistant for Poetry Northwest. Find her on Twitter @kaitlynairy and at her website kaitlynairy.com.

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.

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